2 vim:set ts=4 sw=4 tw=82 noet:
10 signal-cli - A commandline and dbus interface for the Signal messenger
14 *signal-cli* [--config CONFIG] [-h | -v | -u USERNAME | --dbus | --dbus-system] command [command-options]
19 signal-cli is a commandline interface for libsignal-service-java. It supports
20 registering, verifying, sending and receiving messages. For registering you need a
21 phone number where you can receive SMS or incoming calls.
22 signal-cli was primarily developed to be used on servers to notify admins of
23 important events. For this use-case, it has a dbus interface, that can be used to
24 send messages from any programming language that has dbus bindings.
30 Show help message and quit.
33 Print the version and quit.
36 Set the path, where to store the config.
37 (Default: $HOME/.config/signal)
39 *-u* USERNAME, *--username* USERNAME::
40 Specify your phone number, that will be your identifier.
41 The phone number must include the country calling code, i.e. the number must
42 start with a "+" sign.
45 Make request via user dbus.
48 Make request via system dbus.
55 Register a phone number with SMS or voice verification. Use the verify command to
56 complete the verification.
59 The verification should be done over voice, not SMS.
63 Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice.
66 The verification code.
70 Disable push support for this device, i.e. this device won't receive any more messages.
71 If this is the master device, other users can't send messages to this number anymore.
72 Use "updateAccount" to undo this.
73 To remove a linked device, use "removeDevice" from the master device.
77 Update the account attributes on the signal server.
78 Can fix problems with receiving messages.
82 Link to an existing device, instead of registering a new number. This shows a
83 "tsdevice:/…" URI. If you want to connect to another signal-cli instance, you can
84 just use this URI. If you want to link to an Android/iOS device, create a QR code
85 with the URI (e.g. with qrencode) and scan that in the Signal app.
87 *-n* NAME, *--name* NAME::
88 Optionally specify a name to describe this new device. By default "cli" will
93 Link another device to this device. Only works, if this is the master device.
96 Specify the uri contained in the QR code shown by the new device.
100 Show a list of connected devices.
104 Remove a connected device. Only works, if this is the master device.
106 *-d* DEVICEID, *--deviceId* DEVICEID::
107 Specify the device you want to remove. Use listDevices to see the deviceIds.
111 Send a message to another user or group.
114 Specify the recipients’ phone number.
116 *-g* GROUP, *--group* GROUP::
117 Specify the recipient group ID in base64 encoding.
119 *-m* MESSAGE, *--message* MESSAGE::
120 Specify the message, if missing, standard input is used.
122 *-a* [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]], *--attachment* [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]]::
123 Add one or more files as attachment.
125 *-e*, *--endsession*::
126 Clear session state and send end session message.
130 Query the server for new messages. New messages are printed on standardoutput and
131 attachments are downloaded to the config directory.
133 *-t* TIMEOUT, *--timeout* TIMEOUT::
134 Number of seconds to wait for new messages (negative values disable timeout).
135 Default is 5 seconds.
136 *--ignore-attachments*::
137 Don’t download attachments of received messages.
141 Create or update a group.
143 *-g* GROUP, *--group* GROUP::
144 Specify the recipient group ID in base64 encoding. If not specified, a new
145 group with a new random ID is generated.
147 *-n* NAME, *--name* NAME::
148 Specify the new group name.
150 *-a* AVATAR, *--avatar* AVATAR::
151 Specify a new group avatar image file.
153 *-m* [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]], *--member* [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]]::
154 Specify one or more members to add to the group.
158 Send a quit group message to all group members and remove self from member list.
160 *-g* GROUP, *--group* GROUP::
161 Specify the recipient group ID in base64 encoding.
165 Show a list of known groups.
168 Include the list of members of each group.
172 List all known identity keys and their trust status, fingerprint and safety
175 *-n* NUMBER, *--number* NUMBER::
176 Only show identity keys for the given phone number.
180 Set the trust level of a given number. The first time a key for a number is seen,
181 it is trusted by default (TOFU). If the key changes, the new key must be trusted
185 Specify the phone number, for which to set the trust.
187 *-a*, *--trust-all-known-keys*::
188 Trust all known keys of this user, only use this for testing.
190 *-v* VERIFIED_FINGERPRINT, *--verified-fingerprint* VERIFIED_FINGERPRINT::
191 Specify the safety number or fingerprint of the key, only use this option if you have verified
197 signal-cli can run in daemon mode and provides an experimental dbus interface. For
198 dbus support you need jni/unix-java.so installed on your system (Debian:
199 libunixsocket-java ArchLinux: libmatthew-unix-java (AUR)).
202 Use DBus system bus instead of user bus.
203 *--ignore-attachments*::
204 Don’t download attachments of received messages.
210 Register a number (with SMS verification)::
211 signal-cli -u USERNAME register
213 Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice::
214 signal-cli -u USERNAME verify CODE
216 Send a message to one or more recipients::
217 signal-cli -u USERNAME send -m "This is a message" [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]] [-a [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]]]
219 Pipe the message content from another process::
220 uname -a | signal-cli -u USERNAME send [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]]
223 signal-cli -u USERNAME updateGroup -n "Group name" -m [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]]
225 Add member to a group::
226 signal-cli -u USERNAME updateGroup -g GROUP_ID -m "NEW_MEMBER"
229 signal-cli -u USERNAME quitGroup -g GROUP_ID
231 Send a message to a group::
232 signal-cli -u USERNAME send -m "This is a message" -g GROUP_ID
234 Trust new key, after having verified it::
235 signal-cli -u USERNAME trust -v FINGER_PRINT NUMBER
237 Trust new key, without having verified it. Only use this if you don't care about security::
238 signal-cli -u USERNAME trust -a NUMBER
242 The password and cryptographic keys are created when registering and stored in the
243 current users home directory, the directory can be changed with *--config*:
245 $HOME/.config/signal/
247 For legacy users, the old config directory is used as a fallback:
249 $HOME/.config/textsecure/
255 Maintained by AsamK <asamk@gmx.de>, who is assisted by other open
256 source contributors. For more information about signal-cli development, see
257 <https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli>.