Alibaba Cloud CLI

A cross-platform command-line tool for managing Alibaba Cloud resources through OpenAPI.

Alibaba Cloud CLI (aliyun) is written in Go and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows. It supports interactive and non-interactive credential profiles, OpenAPI calls, local API help, structured output, waiters, safety controls, and an extensible plugin system.

Alibaba Cloud CLI invokes cloud services through OpenAPI. Activate the target service first and make sure your identity has the required permissions. Avoid long-lived AccessKeys where a temporary or identity-based credential mode is available.

Install

Choose one of the following methods:

# Homebrew
brew install aliyun-cli

# macOS or Linux installer script
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://aliyuncli.alicdn.com/install.sh)"

Official packages:

Verify the installation:

aliyun version

Upgrade an existing standalone installation:

aliyun upgrade

If the CLI was installed through a package manager, prefer that package manager's upgrade command.

See the installation guide for PATH setup, source builds, and upgrades.

To try the CLI without installing it locally, open Alibaba Cloud Shell:

Quick start

1. Configure a profile

For an interactive local environment, OAuth avoids storing a long-lived AccessKey:

aliyun configure --mode OAuth --profile default

You can also use AK, StsToken, RamRoleArn, EcsRamRole, OIDC, External, CredentialsURI, ChainableRamRoleArn, CloudSSO, BearerToken, or Anonymous mode where applicable.

# Inspect and select profiles
aliyun configure list
aliyun configure switch --profile default

See configuration and credentials before using a profile in production or CI.

2. Call an API

Both the traditional PascalCase form and the metadata-driven kebab-case form are supported where metadata is available:

aliyun ecs DescribeRegions
aliyun ecs describe-regions

Safety policy matches command spelling by design: it ignores case but does not expand API aliases or equate PascalCase with kebab-case. Configure rules for each spelling your automation uses; see the matching contract.

3. Explore help

aliyun --help
aliyun ecs DescribeInstances --help
aliyun ecs describe-instances --help

Common capabilities

Filter and format output

aliyun ecs DescribeInstances \
  --output cols=InstanceId,Status rows=Instances.Instance[]

aliyun ecs describe-instances \
  --cli-query 'Instances.Instance[].{Id:InstanceId,Status:Status}'

Wait for a resource state

aliyun ecs DescribeInstances \
  --InstanceIds '["i-example"]' \
  --waiter expr='Instances.Instance[0].Status' to=Running

Use product plugins

aliyun plugin search <command-name>
aliyun plugin install --name <plugin-name>
aliyun plugin list
aliyun plugin update --name <plugin-name>

See command usage and plugin management for the complete workflows.

Troubleshoot

OpenAPI Troubleshoot helps diagnose OpenAPI request failures by RequestId or error message.

Documentation

Topic	English	简体中文
Documentation index	English	中文
Installation and upgrade	Guide	指南
Configuration and credentials	Guide	指南
Commands, output, and automation	Guide	指南
MCP, OpenTelemetry, and machine interfaces	Guide	指南
Built-in OSS automation	Guide	指南
Plugin management	Guide	指南

Additional resources:

Support

Search existing or open a GitHub issue.
For a suspected security vulnerability, follow SECURITY.md instead of opening a public issue.
Release notes and binaries are available on the Releases page.

License

Alibaba Cloud CLI is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Alibaba Cloud CLI