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. Use the vmware-tap/default:v1.7.9 plug-in group with Tanzu Application Platform version v1.7.9. For more information, see Install Tanzu CLI plug-ins.

The vmware-tap/default:v1.7.9 plug-in group consists of the following plug-ins:

NAME              DESCRIPTION                                                      TARGET      VERSION
  telemetry         configure cluster-wide settings for vmware tanzu telemetry       global      v1.1.0
  accelerator       Manage accelerators in a Kubernetes cluster                      kubernetes  v1.7.0
  apps              Applications on Kubernetes                                       kubernetes  v0.12.1
  build-service     plugin to interact with tanzu build service (tbs) crds           kubernetes  v1.0.0
  external-secrets  interacts with external-secrets.io resources                     kubernetes  v0.1.0
  insight           post & query image, package, source, and vulnerability data      kubernetes  v1.7.0
  package           Tanzu package management                                         kubernetes  v0.29.0
  secret            Tanzu secret management                                          kubernetes  v0.29.0
  services          Commands for working with service instances, classes and claims  kubernetes  v0.8.0

Note
The Telemetry, Package, and Secret plug-ins are not Tanzu Application Platform specific, they are common to a number of other plug-in groups, for more information, see Command Groups in the Tanzu CLI Product Documentation.

Command Reference Documentation	Release Notes
Accelerator command reference	Accelerator release notes
Apps command reference	Apps release notes
Build Service command reference	Build Service release notes
External Secrets command reference	External Secrets release notes
Insight command reference	Insight release notes
Services command reference	Services release notes

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 v1.7.9 by running:

tanzu plugin install --group vmware-tap/default:v1.7.9

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:

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.

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

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