Temporal CLI command reference

The Temporal CLI is a command-line tool that includes a distribution of a Temporal Cluster (Temporal ServerWhat is the Temporal Server?

The Temporal Server is a grouping of four horizontally scalable services.

Learn more, persistence (SQLite), and the Temporal Web UIWhat is the Temporal Web UI?

The Temporal Web UI

Learn more). The tool runs as a single process with zero runtime dependencies and supports persistence to disk and in-memory mode through SQLite.

Available commands

• temporal activity
• temporal batch
• temporal env
• temporal operator
• temporal schedule
• temporal server
• temporal task-queue
• temporal workflow

Installation

Temporal CLI can be installed through several different methods. While most of them can be used across all operating systems, please note that Homebrew is macOS-exclusive.

For more information, see our guide to running a Development ClusterHow to install Temporal CLI and run a development server

undefined

Learn more.

Starting the Temporal Server

Run the following command to start the Temporal Server. This command also starts the Web UI.

temporal server start-dev

At this point you should have a server running on localhost:7233 and a web interface at http://localhost:8233. A default Namespace has also been created.

Run individual commands to interact with the local Temporal Server.

temporal operator namespace list
temporal workflow list

Configuration

Use the help flag to see a full list of CLI options:

temporal server start-dev --help

Namespace registration

Namespaces are pre-registered at startup so they're available to use immediately. To customize the pre-registered namespaces, start the server with the following:

temporal server start-dev --namespace foo --namespace bar

You can also register Namespaces with the following command:

temporal operator namespace create foo

Persistence modes

By default, temporal server start-dev runs in an in-memory mode.

To persist the state to a file on disk, use --db-filename:

temporal server start-dev --db-filename my_test.db

Enable or disable Temporal UI

By default, the Temporal UI is started with Temporal CLI. The UI can be disabled via a runtime flag:

temporal server start-dev --headless

Dynamic configuration

Advanced configuration of the Temporal CLI requires the use of a dynamic configuration file. This file is created outside the Temporal CLI; it is usually located with the service's config files.

Dynamic configuration values can also be set via --dynamic-config-value KEY=JSON_VALUE. For example, to enable the Search Attribute cache (disabled by default), run the following:

temporal server start-dev --dynamic-config-value system.forceSearchAttributesCacheRefreshOnRead=false

This setting makes created Search Attributes immediately available for use.

Environmental variables

The Temporal CLI hosts a set of Client Options that can be used to configure the system environment. Use the following table as a reference for the Temporal CLI environmental variables.

Variable	Definition	Client Option
TEMPORAL_CLI_ADDRESS	The host and port (formatted as host:port) for the Temporal Frontend Service.	--address
TEMPORAL_CLI_CODEC_AUTH	Sets the authorization header on requests to the Codec Server.	--codec-auth
TEMPORAL_CLI_CODEC_ENDPOINT	Endpoint for a remote Codec Server.	--codec-endpoint
TEMPORAL_CONTEXT_TIMEOUT	An optional timeout for the context of an RPC call (in seconds). Default value: 5	--context-timeout
TEMPORAL_CLI_NAMESPACE	Identifies a Namespace in the Temporal Workflow. Default value: "default".	--namespace
TEMPORAL_CLI_TLS_CA	Path to server CA certificate.	--tls-ca-path
TEMPORAL_CLI_TLS_CERT	Path to x509 certificate.	--tls-cert-path
TEMPORAL_CLI_TLS_DISABLE_HOST_VERIFICATION	Disables TLS host name verification if already enabled. Default value: false.	--tls-disable-host-verification
TEMPORAL_CLI_TLS_KEY	Path to private certificate key.	--tls-key-path
TEMPORAL_CLI_TLS_SERVER_NAME	Provides an override for the target TLS server name.	--tls-server-name

Auto-completion

The Temporal CLI has the capability to auto-complete commands.

Running temporal completion SHELL outputs the related completion SHELL code.

zsh auto-completion

Add the following code snippet to your ~/.zshrc file:

source <(temporal completion zsh)

If you're running auto-completion from the terminal, run the following command:

echo 'source <(temporal completion zsh)' >> ~/.zshrc

After setting the variable, run the following command:

source ~/.zshrc.

Bash auto-completion

Bash auto-completion relies on bash-completion.

Install the software with the steps provided in the bash-completion README, or use your preferred package manager on your operating system.

For more information, see the Bash Completion page on Repology.