dash0-cli

Dash0 CLI

A command-line interface designed for humans, agentic AIs and CI/CD to interact with the Dash0 observability platform.

An ergonomic CLI for agentic AI

The dash0 CLI is designed to be driven by AI coding agents as naturally as by humans. Its capabilities are discoverable via --help, alongside a comprehensive command reference with detailed flags, expected outputs, and ready-to-use workflow examples. Authentication and connection settings can be configured entirely through profiles and environment variables, avoiding the need to pass secrets as command-line arguments. Commands use consistent naming conventions and flags. Structured and parseable output formats (--output json, --output yaml, --output csv). Agent mode makes all of this automatic: JSON output, structured help, JSON errors, no prompts, and no colors — with zero configuration.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS and Linux)

brew tap dash0hq/dash0-cli https://github.com/dash0hq/dash0-cli
brew install dash0hq/dash0-cli/dash0

GitHub Releases

Download pre-built binaries for your platform from the releases page. Archives are available for Linux, macOS and Windows across multiple architectures.

GitHub Actions

Setup Action

Use the dash0 CLI in your CI/CD workflows with the setup action:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4

  - name: Setup Dash0 CLI
    uses: dash0hq/dash0-cli/.github/actions/setup@main  # You can use any git ref: @main, @v1.1.0, or @commit-sha
    # with:
    #   version: '1.1.0' # 1.1.0 is the earliest supported version

  - name: List dashboards
    env:
      DASH0_API_URL: ... # Find this at https://app.dash0.com/goto/settings/endpoints?endpoint_type=api_http
      DASH0_OTLP_URL: ... # Find this https://app.dash0.com/goto/settings/endpoints?endpoint_type=otlp_http
      DASH0_AUTH_TOKEN: ... # Get one from https://app.dash0.com/goto/settings/auth-tokens?auth_token_id=39d58aa9-b64e-464c-a675-cc3923085d6c ; keep the auth token in a GitHub secret!
      DASH0_DATASET: my-dataset # Leave empty for the `default` dataset
    run: dash0 dashboards list

Send Log Event Action

The send-log-event action sends log events to Dash0 directly from your workflows. It is standalone: it installs the Dash0 CLI automatically if it is not already on PATH. If the setup action has already run in the same job, the existing installation is reused.

When used on its own, pass otlp-url and auth-token directly:

steps:
  - name: Send deployment event
    uses: dash0hq/dash0-cli/.github/actions/send-log-event@main
    with:
      otlp-url: ${{ vars.DASH0_OTLP_URL }}
      auth-token: ${{ secrets.DASH0_AUTH_TOKEN }}
      event-name: dash0.deployment
      body: 'Deployment completed'
      severity-number: '9'
      service-name: my-service
      deployment-environment-name: production
      deployment-status: succeeded

When the setup action has already created a profile, the connection parameters are inherited and do not need to be repeated:

steps:
  - name: Setup Dash0 CLI
    uses: dash0hq/dash0-cli/.github/actions/setup@main
    with:
      otlp-url: ${{ vars.DASH0_OTLP_URL }}
      auth-token: ${{ secrets.DASH0_AUTH_TOKEN }}

  - name: Send deployment event
    uses: dash0hq/dash0-cli/.github/actions/send-log-event@main
    with:
      event-name: dash0.deployment
      body: 'Deployment completed'
      severity-number: '9'
      service-name: my-service
      deployment-environment-name: production
      deployment-status: succeeded

Docker

docker run ghcr.io/dash0hq/cli:latest [command]

Multi-architecture images (linux/amd64, linux/arm64) are published to GitHub Container Registry.

From Source

Requires Go 1.22 or higher.

git clone https://github.com/dash0hq/dash0-cli.git
cd dash0-cli
make install

Usage

For the full command reference with detailed flags, output examples, and AI-agent workflows, see docs/commands.md.

Configuration

The CLI resolves connection settings from profiles stored on disk, environment variables, and CLI flags, in that order. Profiles are the recommended way to manage credentials locally; environment variables are convenient for CI/CD and agentic workflows.

Profiles

Configure API access using profiles. All profile fields are optional at creation time. Missing values can be supplied later via config profiles update or overridden at runtime with environment variables or CLI flags.

dash0 config profiles create dev \
    --api-url https://api.us-west-2.aws.dash0.com \
    --otlp-url https://ingress.us-west-2.aws.dash0.com \
    --auth-token auth_xxx

dash0 config profiles list
dash0 config profiles select prod
dash0 config show

You can find the API endpoint for your organization on the Endpoints page, under the API entry, and the OTLP HTTP endpoint under the OTLP via HTTP entry. Currently only HTTP OTLP endpoints are supported.

Configuration storage

Profiles and the active-profile selection are stored on disk in ~/.dash0/:

File	Content
profiles.json	All configured profiles (name, URLs, auth token, dataset)
activeProfile	Name of the currently active profile

The directory is created automatically when you create your first profile.

To store configuration elsewhere, set the DASH0_CONFIG_DIR environment variable:

export DASH0_CONFIG_DIR=~/.local/dash0
dash0 config profiles create dev --api-url https://api.us-west-2.aws.dash0.com

Agent mode

Agent mode optimizes every aspect of the CLI for machine consumption. Enable it explicitly with --agent-mode or DASH0_AGENT_MODE=true, or let it auto-activate when a known AI agent environment variable is detected:

Agent	Environment variables
Aider	AIDER
Claude Code	CLAUDE_CODE, CLAUDECODE
Cline	CLINE, CLINE_TASK_ID
Cursor	CURSOR_AGENT, CURSOR_SESSION_ID
GitHub Copilot	GITHUB_COPILOT
MCP servers	MCP_SESSION_ID
OpenAI Codex	CODEX, OPENAI_CODEX
Windsurf	WINDSURF_AGENT, WINDSURF_SESSION_ID

When agent mode is active, the CLI:

• Defaults output to JSON — all data retrieval commands (list, get, query, config show, metrics instant) output JSON instead of tables, without needing -o json.
• Returns --help as structured JSON — flags, subcommands, aliases, and metadata are machine-parseable.
• Emits errors as JSON on stderr — {"error": "...", "hint": "..."} instead of colored text.
• Skips confirmation prompts — destructive operations (delete, remove) proceed without asking, equivalent to --force.
• Disables colored output — no ANSI escape codes in any output.

To explicitly disable agent mode (for example, when running inside an agent environment but wanting human-readable output), set DASH0_AGENT_MODE=0 or DASH0_AGENT_MODE=false. This overrides all other activation methods.

See the agent mode specification for the full priority order and details.

Applying assets

Apply asset definitions from a file, directory, or stdin. The input may contain multiple YAML documents separated by ---. Supported asset types: Dashboard, PersesDashboard, CheckRule, SyntheticCheck, and View.

dash0 apply -f assets.yaml
dash0 apply -f dashboards/
cat assets.yaml | dash0 apply -f -
dash0 apply -f assets.yaml --dry-run

Note: In Dash0, dashboards, views, synthetic checks and check rules are called "assets", rather than the more common "resources". The reason for this is that the word "resource" is overloaded in OpenTelemetry, where it describes "where telemetry comes from".

Dashboards

dash0 dashboards list
dash0 dashboards get <id>
dash0 dashboards get <id> -o yaml
dash0 dashboards create -f dashboard.yaml
dash0 dashboards create -f persesdashboard.yaml
dash0 dashboards update [id] -f dashboard.yaml
dash0 dashboards delete <id> [--force]

Check rules

dash0 check-rules list
dash0 check-rules get <id>
dash0 check-rules get <id> -o yaml
dash0 check-rules create -f rule.yaml
dash0 check-rules create -f prometheus-rules.yaml
dash0 check-rules update [id] -f rule.yaml
dash0 check-rules delete <id> [--force]

Both apply and dashboards create also accept PersesDashboard CRD files. Both apply and check-rules create also accept PrometheusRule CRD files.

Synthetic checks

dash0 synthetic-checks list
dash0 synthetic-checks get <id>
dash0 synthetic-checks get <id> -o yaml
dash0 synthetic-checks create -f check.yaml
dash0 synthetic-checks update [id] -f check.yaml
dash0 synthetic-checks delete <id> [--force]

Views

dash0 views list
dash0 views get <id>
dash0 views get <id> -o yaml
dash0 views create -f view.yaml
dash0 views update [id] -f view.yaml
dash0 views delete <id> [--force]

Logging

Sending logs to Dash0

[!NOTE] The dash0 logs send command requires an OTLP URL configured in the active profile, or via the --otlp-url flag or the DASH0_OTLP_URL environment variable.

dash0 logs send "Application started" \
    --resource-attribute service.name=my-service \
    --log-attribute user.id=12345 \
    --severity-text INFO --severity-number 9

Querying logs from Dash0

[!WARNING] This command is experimental and requires the --experimental (or -X) flag. The command syntax — especially the --filter format — may change in future releases.

[!NOTE] The dash0 logs query command requires an API URL and auth token configured in the active profile, or via flags or environment variables.

dash0 -X logs query
dash0 -X logs query --from now-1h --to now --limit 100
dash0 -X logs query --filter "service.name is my-service"
dash0 -X logs query --filter "otel.log.severity.range is_one_of ERROR WARN"
dash0 -X logs query --filter '[{"key":"service.name","operator":"is","value":"api"}]'
dash0 -X logs query -o csv
dash0 -X logs query --column time --column service.name --column body

The --filter flag also accepts JSON filter criteria copied from the Dash0 UI. See the filter syntax reference for the full list of operators.

Tracing

Sending spans to Dash0

[!WARNING] This command is experimental and requires the --experimental (or -X) flag.

[!NOTE] The dash0 spans send command requires an OTLP URL configured in the active profile, or via the --otlp-url flag or the DASH0_OTLP_URL environment variable.

dash0 -X spans send --name "GET /api/users" \
    --kind SERVER --status-code OK --duration 100ms \
    --resource-attribute service.name=my-service

Querying spans from Dash0

[!WARNING] This command is experimental and requires the --experimental (or -X) flag.

[!NOTE] The dash0 spans query command requires an API URL and auth token configured in the active profile, or via flags or environment variables.

dash0 -X spans query
dash0 -X spans query --from now-1h --to now --limit 100
dash0 -X spans query --filter "service.name is my-service"
dash0 -X spans query --filter "otel.span.status.code is ERROR"
dash0 -X spans query --filter '[{"key":"service.name","operator":"is","value":"api"}]'
dash0 -X spans query -o csv
dash0 -X spans query --column otel.span.start_time --column otel.span.duration --column "span name" --column http.request.method

See the filter syntax reference for the full list of operators.

Getting a trace from Dash0

[!WARNING] This command is experimental and requires the --experimental (or -X) flag.

[!NOTE] The dash0 traces get command requires an API URL and auth token configured in the active profile, or via flags or environment variables.

dash0 -X traces get <trace-id>
dash0 -X traces get <trace-id> --from now-2h
dash0 -X traces get <trace-id> --follow-span-links
dash0 -X traces get <trace-id> -o json
dash0 -X traces get <trace-id> --column otel.span.start_time --column otel.span.duration --column "span name" --column otel.span.status.code

Metrics

dash0 metrics instant --query 'sum(rate(http_requests_total[5m]))'

Teams (experimental)

# List all teams
dash0 -X teams list

# Get team details (members + accessible assets)
dash0 -X teams get <id>

# Create a team
dash0 -X teams create "Backend Team" --color-from "#FF6B6B" --color-to "#4ECDC4"

# Add members to a team
dash0 -X teams add-members <team-id> <member-id-1> <member-id-2>

Members (experimental)

# List organization members
dash0 -X members list

# Invite a member (default role: basic_member)
dash0 -X members invite user@example.com

# Delete a member
dash0 -X members delete <member-id> --force

Common settings

Flag	Short	Env Variable	Description
--agent-mode		DASH0_AGENT_MODE	Enable agent mode for AI coding agents. Auto-detected when common agent env vars are set.
--api-url		DASH0_API_URL	Override API URL from profile. Find yours here.
--otlp-url		DASH0_OTLP_URL	Override OTLP URL from profile. Find yours here.
--auth-token		DASH0_AUTH_TOKEN	Override auth token from profile. Find yours here.
--color		DASH0_COLOR	Color mode for output: semantic (default) or none. Ignored when piping output.
--dataset		DASH0_DATASET	Override dataset from profile. Use the identifier, not Name.
--experimental	-X		Enable experimental features (required for commands marked [experimental])
--file	-f		Input file path (use - for stdin)
--output	-o		Output format: table, wide, json, yaml, csv
		DASH0_CONFIG_DIR	Override the configuration directory (default: ~/.dash0)

Output formats

The list and get commands for assets support multiple output formats via -o:

• table (default): Compact view with essential columns (name and ID)
• wide: Similar to table, with additional columns (dataset, origin, and URL)
• json: Full asset data in JSON format
• yaml: Full asset data in YAML format
• csv: Comma-separated values with the same columns as wide, suitable for piping and automation

The update and apply commands show a unified diff of changes.

The logs query, spans query, and traces get commands support a different set of formats via -o:

• table (default): Columnar output (logs query shows timestamp, severity, and body; spans query shows timestamp, duration, name, status, service, and trace ID; traces get shows a hierarchical span tree)
• json: Full OTLP/JSON payload
• csv: Comma-separated values

In agent mode, all data retrieval commands default to JSON without needing -o json.

Shell completions

Enable tab completion for your shell:

Bash (requires bash-completion):

source <(dash0 completion bash)
# Permanent (macOS): dash0 completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/dash0

Zsh:

source <(dash0 completion zsh)
# Permanent (macOS): dash0 completion zsh > $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh/site-functions/_dash0

Fish:

dash0 completion fish | source
# Permanent: dash0 completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/dash0.fish

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development instructions.