Command-Line Interface (CLI) Quickstart

brew tap twilio/brew && brew install twilio

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wget -qO- https://twilio-cli-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/twilio_pub.asc \
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  | sudo apt-key add -
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sudo touch /etc/apt/sources.list.d/twilio.list
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echo 'deb https://twilio-cli-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/apt/ /' \
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  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/twilio.list
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sudo apt update
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sudo apt install -y twilio

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scoop bucket add twilio-scoop https://github.com/twilio/scoop-twilio-cli
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scoop install twilio

docker run -it --rm twilio/twilio-cli bash

npm install -g twilio-cli

Once the CLI has finished installing, run twilio --version (or twilio -v) to verify your installation. You'll see similar output to this:

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$ twilio --version
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twilio-cli/5.0.0 darwin-x64 node-v14.19.0

In order for the CLI to access your Twilio account and execute commands on your behalf, you need to log in and provide your Twilio credentials. This can be done by running:

twilio login

You will be prompted for your Account SID and Auth Token, both of which you can find on the dashboard of your Twilio console.

This will create an API Key for you that will be stored securely and used to issue authenticated requests as you use the CLI. This secure API Key and your settings will be stored locally as a profile.

Autocomplete allows you to type part of a command, parameter, or flag, and the Twilio CLI will either automatically complete the command or display suggestions for you. If you have autocomplete enabled, you can prompt the CLI for these suggestions by pressing the Tab key.

Enable autocomplete by running the appropriate command for your shell:

twilio autocomplete bash

twilio autocomplete zsh

Follow the resulting instructions, and either restart your shell or open a new one to finish installing command autocomplete.

The best way to learn about what you can do with the CLI is to run the command:

twilio

When you do, you will get a list of the various topics and commands available to run. Topics are groupings for more topics and commands, similar to the folder structure on your file system.

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$ twilio
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Unleash the power of Twilio from your command prompt. Visit https://twil.io/cli for documentation.
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VERSION
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  twilio-cli/5.0.0 darwin-x64 node-v14.19.0
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USAGE
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  $ twilio [COMMAND]
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TOPICS
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  api            advanced access to all of the Twilio APIs
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  config         manage Twilio CLI configurations
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  debugger       Show a list of log events generated for the account
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  email          sends emails to single or multiple recipients using Twilio SendGrid
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  feedback       provide feedback to the CLI team
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  phone-numbers  manage Twilio phone numbers
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  plugins        list available plugins for installation
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  profiles       manage credentials for Twilio profiles
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COMMANDS
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  autocomplete  display autocomplete installation instructions
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  feedback      provide feedback to the CLI team
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  help          display help for twilio
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  login         create a new profile to store Twilio Account credentials and configuration
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  plugins       list installed plugins
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  update        update the twilio CLI

See something that looks interesting? Just try running it:

twilio api -h

Since api is a topic, you will actually be shown more topics and commands that are contained within that topic. Let's say in the process of exploring, you stumbled upon this command:

twilio api:core:messages:list

If you run that command, it will list all of your SMS messages, which may be a lot. How can you filter them? Or, more generally, how can you discover what options a given CLI command provides? The answer is to add --help or -h to the command like so:

twilio api:core:messages:list --help

twilio api:serverless:v1:services:create -h

If you type a command, you might get an error if you haven't provided all the required options. This is another situation where adding --help or -h to the command can give you more information.

twilio api:core:messages:list

twilio api core messages list

Now that you've been introduced to the Twilio CLI, where should you go from here?

Please view our examples for some inspiration of what you can do with the Twilio CLI.

Refer to our general usage guide to read more about a variety of CLI features:

• Store credentials in environment variables
• Direct Twilio Webhooks to your localhost for development and testing
• Set different output formats for your use case
• Change logging levels and debug issues
• Use multiple accounts or profiles
• Use your company's TLS certificate for API requests
• Split a command into multiple lines

The Twilio CLI can be extended via plugins. You can publish your own for the community, or make them private for your own (or your clients') business workflows. There are already a number of plugins available for you to extend your CLI.

Finally, we'd love to hear from you. Any time you have feedback you'd like to send us, run:

twilio feedback