Install Confluent CLI

Use this documentation to install the Confluent CLI. Ensure you meet all requirements before moving forward.

To install the Confluent CLI, use any of the following methods:

• Homebrew
• APT
• YUM
• Scripted installation
• Confluent Platform installation package
• Tarball or ZIP installation

Homebrew

macOS and Linux users can install the latest version of Confluent CLI using the following Homebrew command:

brew install confluentinc/tap/cli

APT

If you are a Debian or Ubuntu user, you can install the latest version of Confluent CLI using the APT package manager:

1. Install the Confluent CLI APT public key.

   wget -qO - https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb/archive.key | sudo apt-key add
   

2. Install add-apt-repository (included in the software-properties-common package) if it is not already installed.

   sudo apt install software-properties-common
   

3. Add the Confluent CLI repository to your APT configuration:

   sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable main"
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Get:1 https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable InRelease [7536 B]
   Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
   Hit:3 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
   Get:4 https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable/main amd64 Packages [450 B]
   Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
   Hit:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease
   Fetched 7986 B in 1s (13.2 kB/s)
   Reading package lists... Done
   

4. Update apt:

   sudo apt update
   

5. Install the Confluent CLI:

   sudo apt install confluent-cli
   

   You should see output similar to:

   ...
   The following NEW packages will be installed:
   confluent-cli
   0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 41 not upgraded.
   Need to get 19.3 MB of archives.
   After this operation, 56.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
   Get:1 https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable/main amd64 confluent-cli amd64 3.48.0 [19.3 MB]
   ...
   Unpacking confluent-cli (3.48.0) ...
   Setting up confluent-cli (3.48.0) ...
   

Confluent Platform

If you installed Confluent Platform using APT, you should already have a version of the Confluent CLI. In most cases, Confluent Platform users should use the version of Confluent CLI provided with Confluent Platform. However, you can still install the latest version of the Confluent CLI from the CLI repository by using the following steps:

1. Install the Confluent CLI APT public key:

   wget -qO - https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb/archive.key | sudo apt-key add
   

2. Add the Confluent CLI repository to your APT configuration:

   sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/deb stable main"
   

3. Uninstall the existing version of the Confluent CLI. This will also uninstall confluent-platform, but not the individual packages included with Confluent Platform.

   sudo apt remove confluent-cli
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Reading package lists... Done
   Building dependency tree
   Reading state information... Done
   The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
   confluent-ce-kafka-http-server confluent-common confluent-control-center confluent-control-center-fe confluent-hub-client confluent-kafka-connect-replicator confluent-kafka-mqtt confluent-kafka-rest confluent-ksqldb confluent-metadata-service confluent-rebalancer confluent-rest-utils confluent-schema-registry
   confluent-schema-registry-plugins confluent-server confluent-server-rest confluent-telemetry
   Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
   The following packages will be REMOVED:
   confluent-cli confluent-platform
   0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 40 not upgraded.
   After this operation, 218 MB disk space will be freed.
   Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
   (Reading database ... 23954 files and directories currently installed.)
   Removing confluent-platform (7.5.3-1) ...
   Removing confluent-cli (7.5.3-1) ...
   

4. Update apt:

   sudo apt update
   

5. Install the latest version of the Confluent CLI. A specific version must be provided; if not, APT will install the CLI provided by Confluent Platform that uses the Confluent Platform version number (which is not considered to be latest CLI version by APT).

   sudo apt install confluent-cli=3.48.0
   

   To find the current latest version, you can run the following commands: sudo apt update and sudo apt list -a confluent-cli and look for the highest version number earlier than 7.x or refer to the Confluent CLI Release Notes.

Note

Updating the CLI through APT, or installing Confluent Platform through APT will cause this version of the CLI to be replaced with the version provided by Confluent Platform.

YUM

RHEL and CentOS users can install the latest version of Confluent CLI using the YUM package manager.

1. Install the Confluent CLI YUM public key:

   sudo rpm --import https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/archive.key
   

2. Install yum-config-manager (included in the yum-utils package) if it is not already installed:

   sudo yum install yum-utils
   

3. Add the Confluent CLI repository to your YUM configuration:

   yum-config-manager --add-repo https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
   adding repo from: https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo
   grabbing file https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo to /etc/yum.repos.d/confluent-cli.repo
   repo saved to /etc/yum.repos.d/confluent-cli.repo
   

4. Clear the YUM caches:

   sudo yum clean all
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
   Cleaning repos: Confluent-CLI base endpoint extras updates
   Cleaning up list of fastest mirrors
   

5. Install the Confluent CLI:

   sudo yum install confluent-cli
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
   Determining fastest mirrors
   * base: centos-distro.1gservers.com
   * extras: mirror.keystealth.org
   * updates: mirrors.unifiedlayer.com
   Confluent-CLI
   base
   endpoint
   extras
   updates
   (1/6): base/7/x86_64/group_gz
   (2/6): extras/7/x86_64/primary_db
   (3/6): Confluent-CLI/primary_db
   (4/6): endpoint/7/x86_64/primary_db
   (5/6): base/7/x86_64/primary_db
   (6/6): updates/7/x86_64/primary_db
   Resolving Dependencies
   --> Running transaction check
   ---> Package confluent-cli.x86_64 0:3.48.0-1 will be installed
   --> Finished Dependency Resolution
   
   Dependencies Resolved
   
   ========================================================================================================================================================================================================================
   Package                                                      Arch                           Version                            Repository                                               Size
   ========================================================================================================================================================================================================================
   Installing:
   confluent-cli                                                x86_64                         3.48.0-1                           Confluent-CLI                                            19 M
   
   Transaction Summary
   ========================================================================================================================================================================================================================
   Install  1 Package
   
   Total download size: 19 M
   Installed size: 54 M
   Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
   Downloading packages:
   confluent-cli-3.48.0-1.x86_64.rpm
   Running transaction check
   Running transaction test
   Transaction test succeeded
   Running transaction
   Verifying  : confluent-cli-3.48.0-1.x86_64
   
   Installed:
   confluent-cli.x86_64 0:3.48.0-1
   
   Complete!
   

Confluent Platform

If you installed Confluent Platform using YUM, you should already have a version of the Confluent CLI. In most cases, Confluent Platform users should use the version of Confluent CLI provided with Confluent Platform. However, if you want to install the latest version of the Confluent CLI from the CLI repository, you can use the following steps:

1. Install the Confluent CLI YUM public key:

   sudo rpm --import https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/archive.key
   

2. Add the Confluent CLI repository to your YUM configuration:

   yum-config-manager --add-repo https://packages.confluent.io/confluent-cli/rpm/confluent-cli.repo
   

3. Uninstall the existing version of the Confluent CLI. This will also uninstall confluent-platform, but not the individual packages included with Confluent Platform:

   sudo yum remove confluent-cli
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
   Resolving Dependencies
   --> Running transaction check
   ---> Package confluent-cli.x86_64 0:7.5.3-1 will be erased
   --> Processing Dependency: confluent-cli = 7.5.3 for package: confluent-platform-7.5.3-1.noarch
   --> Running transaction check
   ---> Package confluent-platform.noarch 0:7.5.3-1 will be erased
   --> Finished Dependency Resolution
   
   Dependencies Resolved
   
   =============================================================================================================================================================================================================
   Package                                                        Arch                          Version                                 Repository                                Size
   =============================================================================================================================================================================================================
   Removing:
   confluent-cli                                                  x86_64                        7.5.3-1                                 @Confluent                                208 M
   Removing for dependencies:
   confluent-platform                                             noarch                        7.5.3-1                                 @Confluent                                0.0
   
   Transaction Summary
   =============================================================================================================================================================================================================
   Remove  1 Package (+1 Dependent package)
   
   Installed size: 208 M
   Is this ok [y/N]: y
   Downloading packages:
   Running transaction check
   Running transaction test
   Transaction test succeeded
   Running transaction
   Erasing    : confluent-platform-7.5.3-1.noarch
   Erasing    : confluent-cli-7.5.3-1.x86_64
   Verifying  : confluent-platform-7.5.3-1.noarch
   Verifying  : confluent-cli-7.5.3-1.x86_64
   
   Removed:
   confluent-cli.x86_64 0:7.5.3-1
   
   Dependency Removed:
   confluent-platform.noarch 0:7.5.3-1
   
   Complete!
   

4. Clear the YUM caches:

   sudo yum clean all
   

   You should see output similar to:

   Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, ovl
   Cleaning repos: Confluent-CLI base endpoint extras updates
   Cleaning up list of fastest mirrors
   ...
   

5. Temporarily disable the Confluent Platform repository:

   sudo yum --disablerepo=Confluent install confluent-cli
   

   This command assumes that users have added the Confluent Platform repository using the confluent.repo file provided in Install Confluent Platform using Systemd on RHEL and CentOS. If you who have modified the repository ID, you must provide the ID as the argument to --disablerepo in place of Confluent in the previous step. You can view repository IDs and names using yum repolist all.

Note

Updating the CLI through YUM, or installing Confluent Platform through YUM will cause this version of the CLI to be replaced with the version provided by Confluent Platform.

Scripted installation

You can use the following instructions to install the latest version of the Confluent CLI:

curl -sL --http1.1 https://cnfl.io/cli | sh -s -- latest

To use the scripted installation method on Microsoft Windows, you might need to install an appropriate Linux environment, such as the Windows Subsystem for Linux, to have the curl and sh commands available. The installation script detects which system you are running on and downloads the appropriate binary.

To download Confluent CLI directly from GitHub, see the following sections:

Windows

To install the Confluent CLI on Windows, complete the following steps:

1. Download the latest Windows ZIP file from https://github.com/confluentinc/cli/releases/latest.

2. Unzip the following file:

   confluent_X.X.X_windows_amd64.zip
   

3. Run confluent.exe.

Default directory

To install the latest version of the Confluent CLI in the default directory:

1. Download and install the latest version in the default directory, ./bin:

   curl -sL --http1.1 https://cnfl.io/cli | sh -s -- latest
   

2. Add the ./bin directory to your $PATH:

   export PATH=$(pwd)/bin:$PATH
   

Custom directory

To install a specific version of Confluent CLI into a custom directory:

1. List all available Confluent CLI versions:

   curl -sL --http1.1 https://cnfl.io/cli | sh -s -- -l
   

2. Download a specific version listed in the above output list.

   The default download directory is ./bin.

   • To download and install a specific version of the Confluent CLI, specify v followed by the version number:

     curl -sL --http1.1 https://cnfl.io/cli | sh -s -- v<version>
     

   • To download and install the Confluent CLI in a custom directory, specify -b followed by a custom directory path, <path-to-cli>:

     curl -sL --http1.1 https://cnfl.io/cli | sh -s -- -b <path-to-cli> v<version>
     

   For example, to download version 3.51.0 of Confluent CLI to /user/local/bin:

   curl -sL --http1.1 https://cnfl.io/cli | sh -s -- -b /usr/local/bin v|release|
   

3. Set the $PATH environment variable to include the directory that you downloaded the CLI binaries in the previous step:

   export PATH=<path-to-cli>:$PATH
   

4. Optionally, if you do not have enough space in the default directory that CLI stores logs and data, set the CONFLUENT_CURRENT environment variable to use a different directory:

   export CONFLUENT_CURRENT=<path-to-confluent-local-data>
   

Confluent Platform installation package

Confluent Platform installation packages include the Confluent CLI binaries for each of the operating system and architecture types that the Confluent CLI supports.

Confluent Community software users must download the Confluent CLI separately and configure it manually.

To use the Confluent CLI in the Confluent Platform package:

1. Set the Confluent Platform home environment variable:

   export CONFLUENT_HOME=<The directory where Confluent is installed>
   

2. Add the location of the CLI to the PATH:

   export PATH=$CONFLUENT_HOME/bin:$PATH
   

Install alternative version in Confluent Platform package

The version of the Confluent CLI used by Confluent Platform can be changed by downloading a specific Confluent CLI binary and using it to replace the current binary.

When you download and install the Confluent CLI outside of the Confluent Platform package, ensure you install a Confluent CLI version that is compatible with the version of Confluent Platform you are running. For reference, see the /platform/current/.

1. Download the appropriate version of the Confluent CLI as described in Scripted installation.

2. Use the downloaded binary to replace the existing Confluent CLI binary located in subdirectories of $CONFLUENT_HOME/libexec/cli/.

   For example, on macOS, which is the darwin operating system type and amd64 architecture type:

   cp <cli binaries> $CONFLUENT_HOME/libexec/cli/darwin_amd64/
   

Tarball or ZIP installation

1. Download and install the most recently released CLI binaries for your platform:

   • macOS with 64-bit Intel chips (Darwin AMD64)
   • macOS with Apple chips (Darwin ARM64)
   • Windows with 64-bit Intel or AMD chips (Windows AMD64)
   • Linux with 64-bit Intel or AMD chips (Linux AMD64) (glibc)
   • Alpine with 64-bit Intel or AMD chips (Alpine AMD64) (musl)
   • Checksums (operating system agnostic)

2. Set the PATH environment to include the directory that you downloaded the CLI binaries in the previous step:

   export PATH=<path-to-cli>:$PATH
   

3. Optionally, if you do not have enough space in the default directory that CLI stores logs and data, set the CONFLUENT_CURRENT environment variable to use a different directory:

   export CONFLUENT_CURRENT=<path-to-confluent-local-data>
   

Verify

You can confirm the version and the OS type of the CLI with the following command:

confluent version

Upgrade

Use the confluent update command to upgrade from an earlier version of the Confluent CLI to a newer version. For the full syntax, see confluent update.

To ensure compatibility, updates using the confluent update command are disabled for the CLI packaged with Confluent Platform. If you need to upgrade to a later version of the CLI, see Install alternative version in Confluent Platform package.

Confluent Platform properties files

The following list includes the default Confluent Platform services configuration properties files, where $CONFLUENT_HOME is the directory where you installed Confluent Platform. You reference or modify the appropriate file when you work with a Confluent Platform service.

• Connect: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/schema-registry/connect-avro-distributed.properties
• Control Center: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/confluent-control-center/control-center-dev.properties
• Kafka: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/kafka/server.properties
• REST Proxy: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/kafka-rest/kafka-rest.properties
• ksqlDB: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/ksqldb/ksql-server.properties
• Schema Registry: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/schema-registry/schema-registry.properties
• ZooKeeper: $CONFLUENT_HOME/etc/kafka/zookeeper.properties