Twilio CLI Quickstart
BETA
This Twilio product is currently available as a beta release. Some features are not yet implemented and others may be changed before the product is declared as Generally Available. Beta products are not covered by a Twilio SLA. Learn more about beta product support.
The Twilio CLI allows you to manage your Twilio resources from your terminal or command prompt. Let’s get it installed and take a quick tour. Follow the installation instructions for your specific platform below.
Install Twilio CLI
One of the easiest ways to install the CLI on macOS is to use Homebrew. If you don't already have it installed, visit the Homebrew site for installation instructions and then return here.
Once Homebrew is installed, simply run the following command to install the CLI:
brew tap twilio/brew && brew install twilio
Updating
If you already installed the CLI with brew and want to upgrade to the latest version, run:
brew upgrade twilio
Warning for Node.js developers
If you have installed Node.js version 10.12 or higher on your Mac, you can avoid potential Node.js version conflicts by installing the CLI using npm:
npm install twilio-cli -g
Before You Begin
Before we can install, we need to make sure you have Node.js installed (version 12.21 or above). To see if you have node installed, try running this command:
node -v
If your system reports v12.21 or above, you can skip the next step.
Installing Node.js on Windows
Using the Windows Installer (.msi) is the recommended way to install Node.js on Windows. You can download the installer from the Node.js download page.
Run PowerShell as an administrator, and type the following command:
PS C:\Windows\system32> Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process
You should see the following output:
Execution Policy Change The execution policy helps protect you from scripts that you do not trust. Changing the execution policy might expose you to the security risks described in the about_Execution_Policies help topic at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170. Do you want to change the execution policy? [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "N"):
Enter Y to confirm the change.
Tested Windows Versions
These instructions have been tested on the following Windows versions:
- Windows 10 Pro
- Windows Server 2016
Installing Twilio CLI
The CLI is installed with npm (Node Package Manager), which comes with Node.js. To install the CLI run the following command:
npm install twilio-cli -g
Note the -g option is what installs the command globally so you can run it from anywhere in your system.
Updating
If you already installed the CLI with npm and want to upgrade to the latest version, run:
npm install twilio-cli@latest -g
Before we can install, we need to make sure you have Node.js installed (version 10.12 or above). Even if you already installed Node yourself, the CLI works best when you install it using nvm. Here's how to get nvm installed on most Linux systems:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/master/install.sh | bash
Please visit the nvm installation instructions for additional options and troubleshooting steps. Once you have nvm installed, run the following to install and use the most recent LTS release of Node.js:
nvm install --lts nvm use <insert version reported from above>
Installing other Twilio CLI prerequisites for Linux
Depending on your distribution, you will need to run one of the following commands:
- Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install libsecret-1-dev - Red Hat-based:
sudo yum install libsecret-devel - Arch Linux:
sudo pacman -S libsecret
Installing Twilio CLI
The CLI is installed with npm (Node Package Manager), which comes with Node.js. To install the CLI run the following command:
npm install twilio-cli -g
Note the -g option is what installs the command globally so you can run it from anywhere in your system.
Updating
If you already installed the CLI with npm and want to upgrade to the latest version, run:
npm install twilio-cli@latest -g
Login to your Twilio account
In order to access your Twilio account, you need to provide your Twilio credentials to the CLI. This can be done by running this command:
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 for future use. Visit general usage to learn more about using multiple profiles.
Install CLI autocomplete (bash or zsh only)
If you are running bash or zsh on macOS or Linux, you can run one of the two commands below (as appropriate for the shell you are using):
twilio autocomplete bash
or
twilio autocomplete zsh
Follow the instructions provided to install command auto-complete for the CLI into your shell.
Make sure you restart or open a new shell after you complete the step to install autocomplete.
Exploring Twilio CLI
The best way to learn about what you can do with the CLI is to simply run the command:
twilio
When you do, you will get a list of the various topics and commands you can run. Topics are just groupings for more topics and commands, just like the folder structure on your file system.
> twilio unleash the power of Twilio from your command prompt VERSION twilio-cli/1.3.6 darwin-x64 node-v10.16.0 USAGE $ twilio [COMMAND] COMMANDS api advanced access to all of the Twilio APIs autocomplete display autocomplete installation instructions feedback provide feedback to the CLI team help display help for twilio login add credentials for an existing Twilio profile phone-numbers manage Twilio phone numbers plugins list installed plugins profiles manage credentials for Twilio profile
See something that looks interesting? Just try running it:
twilio api
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” to the command like so:
twilio api:core:messages:list --help
If you type a command, you might get an error if you haven’t provided all of the required options. This is another situation where adding “--help” to the command can give you more information.
Examples
List your phone numbers
twilio phone-numbers:list
Send a text message
twilio api:core:messages:create \ --from "+15017122661" \ --to "+15558675310" \ --body "I love you 3000"
More examples
Please visit our Examples page for a gallery of more examples.
What’s next?
Now that you’ve been introduced to the CLI, where should you go from here?
Explore plugins
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's already a number of plugins available for you to extend your CLI.
General usage guide
Refer to our general usage guide to read more about a variety of CLI features:
More examples
We have a whole page full of examples of the various things you can do with the Twilio CLI.
Send us feedback
Finally, we’d love to hear from you. Any time you have feedback you’d like to send us, just run:
twilio feedback
Need some help?
We all do sometimes; code is hard. Get help now from our support team, or lean on the wisdom of the crowd by visiting our Twilio Community forums or browsing the Twilio tag on Stack Overflow.