Command-Line Interface
Craft’s HTTP API is complemented by its command-line interface or CLI, which exposes powerful back-office tools to your terminal. Both means of accessing Craft’s features are part of a broader controller-action architecture (opens new window).
This can be useful for automating tasks with cron, running actions in a deployment process (opens new window), working with Craft via SSH, and running resource-intensive tasks that might otherwise be constrained by the limits of your web server. If you installed Craft using our quick-start guide, you’ve already
The Craft CLI executable typically lives at the root of your project (as a file named craft) and requires a compatible PHP installation to run. You can view a list of available commands in the Reference section.
The version of PHP that handles HTTP requests may not be the same as the one that is available directly in your terminal.
Some development environments or hosting platforms have specific tools for running console commands—for example, DDEV has a special ddev craft … command that automatically attaches to the appropriate container before running a command. In this case, you would use ddev craft instead of php craft.
Running php craft without any arguments will output a complete list of available options.
$ php craft
This is Yii version 2.0.36.
The following commands are available:
- db Performs database operations.
db/backup Creates a new database backup.
db/convert-charset Converts tables’ character sets and collations. (MySQL only)
db/restore Restores a database backup.
- cache Allows you to flush cache.
cache/flush Flushes given cache components.
cache/flush-all Flushes all caches registered in the system.
cache/flush-schema Clears DB schema cache for a given connection
component.
cache/index (default) Lists the caches that can be flushed.
...
To see the help of each command, enter:
craft help <command-name>
You can also run php craft help <command-name> to learn more about a command and whatever parameters and options it may accept.
See the Console Commands page in the Extending Craft section to learn about adding your own console commands.