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LaunchDarkly CLI commands

Overview

This topic describes common commands and configuration options in the LaunchDarkly CLI.

The commands included here require you to authenticate yourself, either by logging in to LaunchDarkly or by setting or passing in an access token. To learn how, read Authentication.

View available commands

The majority of the LaunchDarkly CLI commands are resource commands. These commands provide direct access to LaunchDarkly APIs.

To view available commands:

$ldcli

Set input and output formats

For each LaunchDarkly CLI resource command, you can use command line arguments, or use your shell to provide an input file.

For example, here’s how to create a flag using data from the command line:

Create a new flag using data from the command line
$ldcli flags create --project default -d '{"name": "Example flag", "key": "example-flag"}'

Here’s how to create the same flag using data from a file:

$ldcli flags create --project default -d "$(cat data.json)"

By default, resource commands return a simplified plaintext output. For example, the default output message for creating the new flag in the example above is Successfully created Example flag (example-flag).

To view the full JSON response from any resource command, use the --output json flag. Optionally, pipe the result through jq for improved formatting. Here’s how:

Create a new flag and display extended, formatted output
$ldcli flags create --project default -d '{"name": "Example flag", "key": "example-flag"}' --output json | jq

If you prefer a particular output format, you can use the config command to set that preference:

Configure output format
$ldcli config --set output json  # or plaintext

Access SDK credentials

You can access the SDK credentials for a specific project and environment using the environments resource. You need different SDK credentials depending on which SDK you’re working with. To learn more about SDK credentials, read Keys.

Here’s how:

$# use the SDK key for authorization in server-side SDKs
>
>ldcli environments get --project <your project> --environment <your environment> | jq '.apiKey'

Use ldcli for local development

The LaunchDarkly CLI includes a dev-server command that you can use to start a local server, retrieve flag values from a LaunchDarkly source environment, and update those flag values locally. This means you can test your code locally, without having to coordinate with other developers in your organization who are using the same LaunchDarkly source environment.

To learn more, use ldcli dev-server --help or read our guides, Using the LaunchDarkly CLI for local testing and LaunchDarkly CLI dev-server reference.

Use ldcli for uploading sourcemaps

The LaunchDarkly CLI includes a sourcemaps command that you can use to upload JavaScript sourcemaps to LaunchDarkly. This means your sourcemaps are available when you access error monitoring in the LaunchDarkly UI. You must be using the Observability plugin with the JavaScript SDK to use the error monitoring feature.

Here’s how to upload your JavaScript sourcemap:

Upload JavaScript sourcemap
$ldcli sourcemaps upload \
>--app-version <the current version of your deploy> \
>--path <directory where sourcemaps are located locally> \
>--basePath <directory where application code runs> \
>--project <project key>

The sourcemaps upload command uploads a local version of your sourcemap to LaunchDarkly. To use the command, you must have generated sourcemaps for your project. Exactly how to do this depends on your target environment and JavaScript configuration. Bundlers such as babel, webpack, esbuild, and rollup all provide different ways to enable sourcemap generation. Refer to the documentation for your specific bundler to generate production-ready sourcemaps.

The app-version option takes a string that should match the version you include in the observability plugin options.

The path option defaults to ./build. The command uploads any .map files in the directory specified here.

The basePath option ensures that LaunchDarkly stores the sourcemaps at an appropriate location corresponding to your application’s deployment. For example, suppose your sourcemap file is in ./build/myApp and that when you deploy your app, your code runs from ./dist/myApp. You should provide --path ./build/myApp --basePath ./dist/myApp.

The project option is the LaunchDarkly project key.

If your sourcemap is inline, meaning it’s already shipped as part of your application, then you do not need to upload anything to LaunchDarkly.

To learn more, use ldcli sourcemaps --help.

Find additional documentation

LaunchDarkly provides the following additional documentation:

You can also use the ldcli [command] --help command to view usage information for all commands for the LaunchDarkly CLI.

To view and contribute to the LaunchDarkly CLI source code, or to file issues for our team, visit the LaunchDarkly CLI GitHub repository.