openai-cli

OpenAI CLI

The official CLI for the OpenAI REST API.

Installation

Installing with Homebrew

brew install openai/tools/openai

Installing with Go

To test or install the CLI locally, you need Go version 1.26 or later installed.

go install 'github.com/openai/openai-cli/cmd/openai@latest'

Once you have run go install, the binary is placed in your Go bin directory:

• Default location: $HOME/go/bin (or $GOPATH/bin if GOPATH is set)
• Check your path: Run go env GOPATH to see the base directory

If commands aren't found after installation, add the Go bin directory to your PATH:

# Add to your shell profile (.zshrc, .bashrc, etc.)
export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

The first eligible interactive openai run quietly saves image picker Tab shortcuts for future Bash, zsh, and fish sessions. Open a new terminal to use them. See shortcut setup and removal for requirements and opt-out. PowerShell keeps normal Tab completion; press Enter after openai images generate to open the picker.

Running Locally

After cloning the git repository for this project, you can use the scripts/run script to run the tool locally:

./scripts/run args...

Usage

The CLI follows a resource-based command structure:

openai <resource> [subresource...] <command> [flags...]

Standard API endpoints require an API key:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

openai responses create \
  --input "Say this is a test" \
  --model gpt-5.5

Admin endpoints require an admin API key:

export OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY="sk-admin-..."

openai admin organization usage completions \
  --start-time 1735689600 \
  --end-time 1735776000 \
  --bucket-width 1d

Browse each group with --help, for example openai admin --help or openai admin organization --help. Existing colon commands such as openai admin:organization:usage completions continue to work.

Run openai to browse command groups by task, with descriptions for each group. Group help separates actions from nested command groups and lists every immediate command. Help works without an API key or network connection:

openai help setup                  # Enter your API key safely
openai images generate --help      # Example and every image option
openai help images generate        # The same complete image help
openai --help                      # Command groups and global options

Add --help (or -h) to any command for its complete help page. openai help COMMAND shows the same page. Command pages list global options. Use openai --help for their full descriptions. You can place --help after valid command options. The old help --all spelling prints migration guidance and the complete page. Command behavior, defaults, and output formats remain unchanged. Tab completion follows the same group order and supports help topics and file input paths. After upgrading, reload shell completion to enable the new file-path behavior. Older loaded completion scripts keep their previous behavior until refreshed.

Successful JSON responses print readable text by default, including in pipes. Use --format json or --format jsonl in scripts that parse API data. See reading command results for extraction, binary output, and the scope of readable presentation.

Upload a local file with an explicit purpose, inspect its metadata, then download its contents:

openai files upload "upload space.txt" --purpose user_data
openai files get file-example
openai files download file-example --output "downloaded copy.txt"
openai files download file-example > copy.txt

Replace file-example with the returned file ID. Upload takes a plain path, without an added @. create, retrieve, content, and their existing flags remain available. See working with files for literal filenames, output formats, and script examples.

openai images generate --prompt "A tiny orange robot" saves images to ~/Downloads/gpt-images/ and prints their paths, including in pipes. The CLI uses gpt-image-2.5-sunburst when saving without an explicit model or legacy response format. Use --model for another exact ID, --name for a filename, or --output-dir for an existing directory. Existing files are kept. --format json returns API data without saving or applying the CLI preset. images edit also saves new results while keeping source files. images create-variation is retired and no longer available. To create a variation, use images edit with a GPT Image model and a prompt. See image generation and saving for commands and defaults.

openai images preview "path/to/image.png" redisplays a saved image without an API request. Use openai images inline on or off to remember whether future saved images appear automatically. Per-command --inline auto, on or off overrides that setting. on also permits an image font in local Apple Terminal.

Errors print actionable summaries to stderr by default. Use --format-error json for original API error details, including unknown fields and SDK-reported stream error events. For those events, extraction paths include the error envelope, for example --transform-error error.code. Explicit --format values json, jsonl, raw, and yaml also apply to errors unless overridden by --format-error; an explicit --format-error auto or text restores summaries. --transform-error extracts error data independently of successful output. Malformed or empty error bodies receive a safe diagnostic; HTTP status is included only when the SDK retains it. Summaries omit rejected values and request URLs; explicit API error details can contain server-supplied sensitive data.

Environment variables

Global flags

• --api-key (can also be set with OPENAI_API_KEY env var)
• --admin-api-key (can also be set with OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY env var)
• --organization (can also be set with OPENAI_ORG_ID env var)
• --project (can also be set with OPENAI_PROJECT_ID env var)
• --webhook-secret (can also be set with OPENAI_WEBHOOK_SECRET env var)
• --mtls-client-cert-file (can also be set with OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_CERT_FILE env var)
• --mtls-client-key-file (can also be set with OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_KEY_FILE env var)
• --help - Show command line usage
• --debug - Enable debug logging. This includes HTTP request/response details and bodies; do not share debug logs if they may contain sensitive payloads.
• --version, -v - Show the CLI version
• --base-url - Use a custom API backend URL. HTTPS is required except for localhost or literal loopback IP addresses such as 127.0.0.1 and ::1. This also applies to OPENAI_BASE_URL; remote HTTP backends must enable HTTPS.
• --header, -H - Add a literal request header as Name: Value; repeat for multiple headers
• --format - Change the output format (auto, text, explore, json, jsonl, pretty, raw, yaml); auto selects readable text unless extracting data
• --format-error - Change the stderr error format (auto, text, explore, json, jsonl, pretty, raw, yaml); auto selects readable summaries unless extracting error data
• --transform - Transform the data output using GJSON syntax
• --transform-error - Transform the error output using GJSON syntax

Request headers

Use --header or -H before or after a resource command:

openai --header 'X-Trace-ID: example-123' models list \
  -H 'X-Client-Label: local,manual'

Values are literal: commas and colons are preserved, and @ prefixes do not read files. Surrounding spaces and tabs are trimmed from values. -H 'X-Example:' sends an empty value. If a name is repeated, the last value wins regardless of case, overriding default and endpoint-specific headers. Headers managed by the HTTP transport, such as Host and Content-Length, retain the transport's behavior. Supplied header values are hidden in help and redacted in debug logs.

For credential-bearing headers, have a secret manager or trusted launcher set OPENAI_CUSTOM_HEADERS directly in the CLI's environment. This keeps credentials out of command arguments and avoids typing literal secrets into shell history. The variable accepts one Name: Value entry per line. For example, with non-sensitive values:

export OPENAI_CUSTOM_HEADERS='X-Trace-ID: example-123
X-Client-Label: local,manual'
openai models list

--header and endpoint-specific header flags override matching environment entries. Environment header values are also redacted in debug logs. Use OPENAI_API_KEY and OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY for standard API and admin authentication.

Mutual TLS

Mutual TLS is currently in beta. To opt in and activate a CA certificate for your organization or project, follow the OpenAI Mutual TLS Beta Program instructions.

To authenticate API-key requests with a mutual TLS client certificate, provide the client certificate and private key as separate PEM files. If certificate chain support is enabled for your organization, the certificate file must contain the leaf certificate first, followed by any intermediate certificates. Otherwise, use a client certificate signed directly by an activated CA certificate.

export OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_CERT_FILE=/run/secrets/openai/client-chain.pem
export OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_KEY_FILE=/run/secrets/openai/client.key
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://mtls.api.openai.com/v1

openai files list

Both mTLS files must be configured together. Keep the private key in a permission-restricted file; do not put private-key contents directly in command arguments or environment variables. The CLI does not automatically select an mTLS endpoint, so configure OPENAI_BASE_URL or --base-url explicitly. HTTP and SOCKS proxies remain supported, but HTTPS proxies are rejected to prevent presenting the client certificate during the proxy's own TLS handshake.

Passing files as arguments

For JSON input values, @myfile.ext reads local file contents:

Binary upload flags use plain paths. For example, use files upload --file "upload space.txt" --purpose user_data. Here, --file "@upload space.txt" names an actual file starting with @; it does not expand another file reference. See working with files.

openai <command> --arg @abe.jpg

Files can also be passed inside JSON or YAML blobs:

openai <command> --arg '{image: "@abe.jpg"}'
# Equivalent:
openai <command> <<YAML
arg:
  image: "@abe.jpg"
YAML

When piping JSON or YAML from an untrusted source, enable untrusted-stdin mode:

untrusted-producer | OPENAI_UNTRUSTED_STDIN=1 openai <command> --file ./upload.txt

In this mode, values supplied through stdin are treated as literal data: @, @file://, and @data:// references in request bodies, headers, and query parameters do not read local files. File-upload parameters must be provided explicitly as command-line flags. Explicit flags retain their normal file behavior and take precedence over values supplied through stdin. Leave OPENAI_UNTRUSTED_STDIN unset when using trusted heredocs or other trusted piped input that intentionally references local files.

If you need to pass a string literal that begins with an @ sign, you can escape the @ sign to avoid accidentally passing a file.

openai <command> --username '\@abe'

Explicit encoding

For JSON endpoints, the CLI tool does filetype sniffing to determine whether the file contents should be sent as a string literal (for plain text files) or as a base64-encoded string literal (for binary files). If you need to explicitly send the file as either plain text or base64-encoded data, you can use @file://myfile.txt (for string encoding) or @data://myfile.dat (for base64-encoding). Note that absolute paths will begin with @file:// or @data://, followed by a third / (for example, @file:///tmp/file.txt).

openai <command> --arg @data://file.txt

Linking different Go SDK versions

You can link the CLI against a different version of the OpenAI Go SDK for development purposes using the ./scripts/link script.

To link to a specific version from a repository (version can be a branch, git tag, or commit hash):

./scripts/link github.com/org/repo@version

To link to a local copy of the SDK:

./scripts/link ../path/to/openai-go

If you run the link script without any arguments, it will default to ../openai-go.

Contributing

Please share bug reports and feature requests through GitHub issues. Pull requests are limited to repository collaborators; we do not accept pull requests from non-collaborators. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the contribution policy and development guide. For security vulnerabilities, follow SECURITY.md.

License

Copyright 2026 OpenAI

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.