--- layout: "docs" page_title: "Commands" sidebar_current: "docs-commands" description: |- Consul is controlled via a very easy to use command-line interface (CLI). Consul is only a single command-line application: `consul`. This application then takes a subcommand such as agent or members. The complete list of subcommands is in the navigation to the left. --- # Consul Commands (CLI) Consul is controlled via a very easy to use command-line interface (CLI). Consul is only a single command-line application: `consul`. This application then takes a subcommand such as "agent" or "members". The complete list of subcommands is in the navigation to the left. The `Consul` CLI is a well-behaved command line application. In erroneous cases, a non-zero exit status will be returned. It also responds to `-h` and `--help` as you'd most likely expect. And some commands that expect input accept "-" as a parameter to tell Consul to read the input from stdin. To view a list of the available commands at any time, just run `consul` with no arguments: ```text $ consul usage: consul [--version] [--help] [] Available commands are: agent Runs a Consul agent event Fire a new event exec Executes a command on Consul nodes force-leave Forces a member of the cluster to enter the "left" state info Provides debugging information for operators join Tell Consul agent to join cluster keygen Generates a new encryption key keyring Manages gossip layer encryption keys leave Gracefully leaves the Consul cluster and shuts down lock Execute a command holding a lock members Lists the members of a Consul cluster monitor Stream logs from a Consul agent reload Triggers the agent to reload configuration files version Prints the Consul version watch Watch for changes in Consul ``` To get help for any specific command, pass the `-h` flag to the relevant subcommand. For example, to see help about the `join` subcommand: ```text $ consul join -h Usage: consul join [options] address ... Tells a running Consul agent (with "consul agent") to join the cluster by specifying at least one existing member. Options: -rpc-addr=127.0.0.1:8400 Address to the RPC server of the agent you want to contact to send this command. If this isn't specified, the command checks the CONSUL_RPC_ADDR env variable. -wan Joins a server to another server in the WAN pool ```