Viam CLI

The Viam CLI (command line interface) tool enables you to manage your robots and modular resources across organizations and locations from the command line. The CLI lets you:

• Retrieve organization and location information
• Manage robot fleet data and logs
• Control robots by issuing component and service commands
• Upload and manage modular resources in the Viam registry

For example, this CLI command moves a servo to the 75 degree position:

viam robots part run --robot 82c608a-1be9-46a5 --organization "Robot's Org" \
--location myLoc --part "myrobot-main" --data '{"name": "myServo", "angle_deg":75}' \
viam.component.servo.v1.ServoService.MoveRequest

Install

You can download the Viam CLI executable using one of the options below. Select the tab for your platform and architecture. If you are on Linux, you can use the uname -m command to determine your system architecture.

brew tap viamrobotics/brews
brew install viam

sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/viam https://storage.googleapis.com/packages.viam.com/apps/viam-cli/viam-cli-stable-linux-arm64
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/viam

sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/viam https://storage.googleapis.com/packages.viam.com/apps/viam-cli/viam-cli-stable-linux-amd64
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/viam

brew tap viamrobotics/brews
brew install viam

go install go.viam.com/rdk/cli/viam@latest

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/go/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

To later update the Viam CLI tool on Linux, use the steps above to reinstall the latest version. to later update the Viam CLI tool on macOS, run brew upgrade viam.

Authenticate

Once you have installed the Viam CLI, you must authenticate your CLI session with Viam in order to run CLI commands.

You can authenticate your CLI session using either a personal access token or an organization API key. To use an organization API key to authenticate, you must first create an organization API key.

• To authenticate your CLI session using a personal access token:

  viam login
  

  This will open a new browser window with a prompt to start the authentication process. If a browser window does not open, the CLI will present a URL for you to manually open in your browser. Follow the instructions to complete the authentication process.

• To authenticate your CLI session using an organization API key:

  viam login api-key --key-id <api-key-uuid> --key <api-key-secret-value>
  

  If you haven’t already, create an organization API key to use this authentication method.

An authenticated session is valid for 24 hours, unless you explicitly log out.

After the session expires or you log out, you must re-authenticate to use the CLI again.

Create an organization API key

To use an organization API key to authenticate your CLI session, you must first create one:

1. First, authenticate your CLI session. If your organization does not already have an organization API key created, authenticate using a personal access token.

2. Then, run the following command to create a new organization API key:

   viam organizations api-key create --org-id <org-id> --name <key-name>
   

   Where:

   • org-id is your organization ID. You can find your organization ID by running viam organizations list or by visiting your organization’s Settings page in the Viam app.
   • key-name is an optional name for your API key. If omitted, a name will be auto-generated based on your login info and the current time.

The command will return a key id and a key value. You will need both to authenticate using viam login api-key.

Once created, you can then use the organization API key to authenticate future CLI sessions. To switch to using an organization API key for authentication right away, logout then log back in using viam login api-key.

An organization can have multiple API keys.

Manage your robots with the Viam CLI

With the Viam CLI installed and authenticated, you can use it to issue commands to your robot fleet or manage custom modules. All Viam CLI commands use the following format:

viam [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

See the list of commands below.

CLI help

The Viam CLI has a built-in help system that lists all available commands. You can access it at any time by issuing the command:

viam --help

You can also access contextual help by passing the --help flag as a command option for any CLI command, for example:

viam organizations --help

Commands

data

The data command allows you to manage robot data. With it, you can export data in the format of your choice or delete specified data. You can filter the data this command operates on.

viam data export --destination=<output path> --data-type=<output data type> [...named args]
viam data delete [...named args]

Examples:

# export tabular data to /home/robot/data for org abc, location 123
viam data export --destination=/home/robot/data --data_type=tabular \
--org-ids=abc --location-ids=123

# export binary data from all orgs and locations, component name myComponent
viam data export --destination=/home/robot/data --data-type=binary \
--component-name myComponent

Command options

Named arguments

locations

The locations command lists all locations that the authenticated session has access to, grouped by organization. You can filter results by organization.

viam locations list [<organization id>]

Command options

login

The login command helps you authorize your device for CLI usage. See Authenticate.

viam login
viam login api-key --key-id <api-key-uuid> --key <api-key-secret-value>
viam login print-access-token

Use viam login to authenticate using a personal access token, or viam login api-key to authenticate using an organization API key. If you haven’t already, you must create an organization API key first in order to authenticate using one.

Command options

Named arguments

logout

The logout command ends an authenticated CLI session.

viam logout

module

The module command allows to you to manage custom modules This includes:

• Creating a new custom modular resource
• Uploading a new module to the Viam registry
• Updating an existing module in the Viam registry

viam module create --name <module-id> [--org-id <org-id> | --public-namespace <namespace>]
viam module update [--org-id <org-id> | --public-namespace <namespace>] [--module <path to meta.json>]
viam module upload --version <version> --platform <platform> [--org-id <org-id> | --public-namespace <namespace>] [--module <path to meta.json>] <packaged-module.tar.gz>

Examples:

# generate metadata for a module named 'my-module' using your organization's public namespace:
viam module create --name 'my-module' --public-namespace 'my-namespace'

# generate metadata for a module named 'my-module' using your organization's organization ID:
viam module create --name 'my-module' --org-id 'abc'

# update an existing module:
viam module update

# upload a new or updated custom module to the Viam registry:
viam module upload --version "1.0.0" --platform "darwin/arm64" packaged-module.tar.gz

See Upload a custom module and Update an existing module for a detailed walkthrough of the viam module commands.

If you update and release your module as part of a continuous integration (CI) workflow, you can also automatically upload new versions of your module on release using a GitHub Action.

Command options

Named arguments

Using the --org-id and --public-namespace arguments

All of the module commands accept either the --org-id or --public-namespace argument.

• Use the --public-namespace argument to supply the namespace of your organization, suitable for uploading your module to the Viam registry and sharing with other users.
• Use the --org-id to provide your organization ID instead, suitable for sharing your module privately within your organization.

You may use either argument for the viam module create command, but must use --public-namespace for the update and upload commands when uploading as a public module ("visibility": "public") to the Viam registry.

Using the --platform argument

The --platform argument accepts one of the following architectures:

• darwin/arm64 - macOS computers running the arm64 architecture, such as Apple Silicon.
• darwin/amd64 - macOS computers running the Intel x86_64 architecture.
• linux/arm64 - Linux computers or boards running the arm64 (aarch64) architecture, such as the Raspberry Pi.
• linux/amd64 - Linux computers or boards running the Intel x86_64 architecture.

The viam module upload command only supports one platform argument at a time. If you would like to upload your module with support for multiple platforms, you must run a separate viam module upload command for each platform. Use the same version number when running multiple upload commands of the same module code if only the platform support differs.

The Viam registry page for your module displays the platforms your module supports for each version you have uploaded.

Using the --version argument

The --version argument accepts a valid semver 2.0 version (example: 1.0.0). You set an initial version for your custom module with your first viam module upload command for that module, and can later increment the version with subsequent viam module upload commands.

Once your module is uploaded, users can select which version of your module to use on their robot from your module’s page on the Viam registry. Users can choose to pin to a specific patch version, permit upgrades within major release families or only within minor releases, or permit continuous updates.

When you update a module configuration and then upload it, the entrypoint for that module defined in the meta.json file is associated with the specific --version for that upload. Therefore, you are able to change the entrypoint file from version to version, if desired.

Upload validation

When you upload a module, the command validates your local packaged module to ensure that it meets the requirements to successfully upload to the Viam registry. The following criteria are checked for every upload:

• The packaged module must exist on the filesystem at the path provided to the upload command.
• The packaged module must use the .tar.gz or .tgz extension.
• The entry point file specified in the meta.json file must exist on the filesystem at the path specified.
• The entry point file must be executable.

The meta.json file

When uploading a custom module, the Viam registry tracks your module’s metadata in a meta.json file. This file is created for you when you run the viam module create command, with the module_id field pre-populated based on the --name you provided to create. If you later make changes to this file, you can register those changes with the Viam registry by using the viam module update command.

The meta.json file includes the following configuration options:

For example, the following represents the configuration of an example my-module module in the acme namespace:

{
  "module_id": "acme:my-module",
  "visibility": "public",
  "url": "https://github.com/acme-co-example/my-module",
  "description": "An example custom module.",
  "models": [
    {
      "api": "rdk:component:generic",
      "model": "acme:demo:my-model"
    }
  ],
  "entrypoint": "run.sh"
}

See Upload a custom module and Update an existing module for a detailed walkthrough of the viam module commands.

See Modular resources for a conceptual overview of modules and the modular resource system at Viam.

organizations

The organizations command allows you to list the organizations your authenticated session belongs to, and to create a new organization API key.

viam organizations list
viam organizations api-key create --org-id <org-id> [--name <key-name>]

See create an organization API key for more information.

Command options

Named arguments

robots

The robots command allows you to manage your robot fleet. This includes:

• Listing all robots that you have access to, filtered by organization and location.
• Retrieving robot and robot part status
• Retrieving robot and robot part logs
• Controlling a robot by issuing component and service commands
• Accessing your robot with a secure shell (when this feature is enabled)

viam robots list
viam robots status --organization=<org name> --location=<location name> --robot=<robot id>
viam robots logs --organization=<org name> --location=<location name> --robot=<robot id> [...named args]
viam robots part status --organization=<org name> --location=<location name> --robot=<robot id>
viam robots part run --organization=<org name> --location=<location name> --robot=<robot id> [--stream] --data <meth>
viam robots part shell --organization=<org name> --location=<location name> --robot=<robot id>

Examples:

# list all robots you have access to
viam robots list

# get robot status
viam robots status  --robot 82c608a-1be9-46a5-968d-bad3a8a6daa --organization "Robot's Org" --location myLoc

# stream error level logs from a robot part
viam robots part logs --robot 82c608a-1be9-46a5-968d-bad3a8a6daa \
--organization "Robot's Org" --location myLoc --part "myrover-main" --tail true

# stream classifications from a robot part every 500 milliseconds from the Viam Vision Service with classifier "stuff_detector"
viam robots part run --robot 82c608a-1be9-46a5-968d-bad3a8a6daa \
--organization "Robot's Org" --location myLoc --part "myrover-main" --stream 500ms \
--data '{"name": "vision", "camera_name": "cam", "classifier_name": "stuff_detector", "n":1}' \
viam.service.vision.v1.VisionService.GetClassificationsFromCamera

Command options

Positional arguments: part

Named arguments

Using the --stream and --data arguments

Issuing the part command with the run positional argument allows you to run component and service (resource) commands for a selected robot part.

The --data parameter is required and you must specify both:

• Method arguments in JSON format
• A resource method (in the form of the protobuf package and method path)

The format of what is passed to the --data argument is:

'{"arg1": "val1"}' <protobuf path>

You can find the protobuf path for the Viam package and method in the Viam api package by navigating to the component or service directory and then clicking on the resource file. The protobuf path is the package name.

For example:

'{"name": "vision", "camera_name": "cam", "classifier_name": "my_classifier", "n":1}' \
viam.service.vision.v1.VisionService.GetClassificationsFromCamera

The --stream argument, when included in the CLI command prior to the --data command, will stream data back at the specified interval.

version

The version command returns the version of the Viam CLI. To update to the latest version of the CLI, run the installation steps again to download and install the latest version.

viam version

whoami

The whoami command returns the Viam user for an authenticated CLI session, or “Not logged in” if there is no authenticated session.

viam whoami

Global options

You can pass global options after the viam CLI keyword with any command.