Overview of Tanzu CLI

This topic tells you about the Tanzu command-line interface (commonly known as Tanzu CLI).

Tanzu CLI

The Tanzu CLI is a command-line interface that connects you to Tanzu. For example, some functions of Tanzu CLI include:

• Configure the Tanzu CLI itself
• Install and manage packages
• Run Tanzu services and components
• Create and manage application workloads

For more information about Tanzu CLI, see the VMware Tanzu CLI documentation.

Tanzu CLI architecture

The Tanzu CLI has a pluggable architecture. Plug-ins extend the Tanzu CLI core with additional CLI commands.

The following CLI plug-ins are required to install and use Tanzu Application Platform:

• accelerator: Manage accelerators in a Kubernetes cluster
• apps: Manage application workloads running on workload clusters
• build-service: Plug-in to interact with Tanzu Build Service (TBS) crds
• external-secrets: Interact with external-secrets.io resources
• insight: Post and query image, package, source, and vulnerability data
• package: Package management
• secret: Secret management
• services: Discover service types, service instances, and manage resource claims

You can also develop your own plug-ins to add custom commands to the Tanzu CLI.

Tanzu CLI installation

You install and initialize the Tanzu CLI on a computer. The computer can be a laptop, host, or server. To install the CLI see Install Tanzu CLI.

Tanzu CLI command groups

Tanzu CLI commands are organized into command groups. View a list of available command groups by running:

tanzu

The list of command groups that you see depends on which CLI plug-ins are installed on your local machine.

Install new plug-ins

Install the CLI plug-ins required for Tanzu Application Platform v1.6.13 by running:

tanzu plugin install --group vmware-tap/default:v{{ vars.tap_version }}

Plug-ins for the Tanzu CLI are distributed by using a centralized plug-in repository.

The centralized plug-in repository contains:

• CLI plug-ins, which you can install individually
• Plug-in groups, which are a collection of plug-ins that you can install by using a single command

To discover and install plug-ins and plug-in groups:

1. Discover which plug-ins or plug-in groups are available for installation by running:

   tanzu plugin search
   

   tanzu plugin group search
   

   Note

   Include the --show-details flag to see all plug-in or group versions available for installation.

2. Install the latest version of a plug-in or plug-in group by running:

   tanzu plugin install PLUG-IN-NAME
   

   tanzu plugin install --group GROUP-NAME
   

3. Install a specific version of a plug-in or plug-in group by running:

   tanzu plugin install PLUG-IN-NAME --version VERSION
   

   tanzu plugin install --group GROUP-NAME:VERSION