CLI Examples

Spaces can optionally be used instead of colons when entering commands. These two commands are functionally identical:

twilio api:core:messages:list

twilio api core messages list

Create and send an SMS message

twilio api:core:messages:create \
  --to +12127363100 \
  --from +14155551212 \
  --body "Ahoy" \
  -o json

Look up a phone number’s carrier and caller name

twilio api:lookups:v1:phone-numbers:fetch \
  --phone-number +12127363100 \
  --type carrier \
  --type caller-name \
  -o json

List phone numbers available for purchase by area code

twilio api:core:available-phone-numbers:local:list \
  --area-code="209" --country-code US

Purchase an available phone number

twilio api:core:incoming-phone-numbers:create \
  --phone-number="+12095551212"

Review your phone numbers with a filter

twilio api:core:incoming-phone-numbers:list \
  --phone-number="+1209"

Have your phone number respond to an incoming SMS message

twilio api:core:incoming-phone-numbers:update \
  --sid PNfbe7ed1d730e425d0db746c24f7d443c \
  --sms-url "https://www.twilio.com/docs/twiml-snippet/twilio-cli"

List the messages your number has received

twilio api:core:messages:list --to="+12095551212"

List the messages your number has received, including the body

twilio api:core:messages:list \
  --to="+12095551212" \
  --properties="sid,from,body"

Send a Twilio SendGrid email with TSV-format message logs attached

Set the SENDGRID_API_KEY environment variable with a SendGrid API key.

export SENDGRID_API_KEY=SG.xyz.abc

twilio api:core:messages:list \
  -o tsv \
  | twilio email:send \
  --to 'test@example.com'\
  --from 'sender@example.com'\
  --subject='Message log'\
  --text 'Message log'

Transfer a phone number between accounts

In this example we’ll transfer a phone number from the main account to subaccount 1, then to subaccount 2, then back to the main account. First, set a few environment variables to better identify the various accounts:

export MAIN_ACCOUNT_SID="AC00000000000000000000000000000000"
export SUBACCOUNT_1_SID="AC11111111111111111111111111111111"
export SUBACCOUNT_2_SID="AC22222222222222222222222222222222"

Assuming you are using a main account profile in twilio-cli and the phone number is owned by the main account, transfer the phone number to subaccount 1:

twilio api:core:incoming-phone-numbers:update \
  --sid PNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX \
  --target-account-sid $SUBACCOUNT_1_SID

The --account-sid flag is not required — this is because the account SID defaults to the SID of the active profile.

Now transfer the phone number from subaccount 1 to subaccount 2:

twilio api:core:incoming-phone-numbers:update \
  --sid PNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX \
  --account-sid $SUBACCOUNT_1_SID \
  --target-account-sid $SUBACCOUNT_2_SID

Finally, transfer the phone number from subaccount 2 to the main account:

twilio api:core:incoming-phone-numbers:update \
  --sid PNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX \
  --account-sid $SUBACCOUNT_2_SID \
  --target-account-sid $MAIN_ACCOUNT_SID

In the last two commands the --account-sid flag is required as the phone number is not owned by the main account.

List most recent debugger logs

twilio debugger:logs:list

Need some help?

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