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 Make sure you have full read/write access to the given directory.
38 (Default: `$XDG_DATA_HOME/signal-cli` (`$HOME/.local/share/signal-cli`))
40 *-u* USERNAME, *--username* USERNAME::
41 Specify your phone number, that will be your identifier.
42 The phone number must include the country calling code, i.e. the number must
43 start with a "+" sign.
46 Make request via user dbus.
49 Make request via system dbus.
56 Register a phone number with SMS or voice verification. Use the verify command to
57 complete the verification.
60 The verification should be done over voice, not SMS.
64 Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice.
67 The verification code.
69 *-p* PIN, *--pin* PIN::
70 The registration lock PIN, that was set by the user. Only required if a PIN was set.
74 Disable push support for this device, i.e. this device won't receive any more messages.
75 If this is the master device, other users can't send messages to this number anymore.
76 Use "updateAccount" to undo this.
77 To remove a linked device, use "removeDevice" from the master device.
81 Update the account attributes on the signal server.
82 Can fix problems with receiving messages.
86 Set a registration lock pin, to prevent others from registering this number.
88 REGISTRATION_LOCK_PIN::
89 The registration lock PIN, that will be required for new registrations (resets after 7 days of inactivity)
93 Remove the registration lock pin.
97 Link to an existing device, instead of registering a new number. This shows a
98 "tsdevice:/…" URI. If you want to connect to another signal-cli instance, you can
99 just use this URI. If you want to link to an Android/iOS device, create a QR code
100 with the URI (e.g. with qrencode) and scan that in the Signal app.
102 *-n* NAME, *--name* NAME::
103 Optionally specify a name to describe this new device. By default "cli" will
108 Link another device to this device. Only works, if this is the master device.
111 Specify the uri contained in the QR code shown by the new device.
115 Show a list of connected devices.
119 Remove a connected device. Only works, if this is the master device.
121 *-d* DEVICEID, *--deviceId* DEVICEID::
122 Specify the device you want to remove. Use listDevices to see the deviceIds.
126 Send a message to another user or group.
129 Specify the recipients’ phone number.
131 *-g* GROUP, *--group* GROUP::
132 Specify the recipient group ID in base64 encoding.
134 *-m* MESSAGE, *--message* MESSAGE::
135 Specify the message, if missing, standard input is used.
137 *-a* [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]], *--attachment* [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]]::
138 Add one or more files as attachment.
140 *-e*, *--endsession*::
141 Clear session state and send end session message.
145 Query the server for new messages. New messages are printed on standardoutput and
146 attachments are downloaded to the config directory.
148 *-t* TIMEOUT, *--timeout* TIMEOUT::
149 Number of seconds to wait for new messages (negative values disable timeout).
150 Default is 5 seconds.
151 *--ignore-attachments*::
152 Don’t download attachments of received messages.
154 Output received messages in json format, one object per line.
158 Create or update a group.
160 *-g* GROUP, *--group* GROUP::
161 Specify the recipient group ID in base64 encoding. If not specified, a new
162 group with a new random ID is generated.
164 *-n* NAME, *--name* NAME::
165 Specify the new group name.
167 *-a* AVATAR, *--avatar* AVATAR::
168 Specify a new group avatar image file.
170 *-m* [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]], *--member* [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]]::
171 Specify one or more members to add to the group.
175 Send a quit group message to all group members and remove self from member list.
177 *-g* GROUP, *--group* GROUP::
178 Specify the recipient group ID in base64 encoding.
182 Show a list of known groups.
185 Include the list of members of each group.
189 List all known identity keys and their trust status, fingerprint and safety
192 *-n* NUMBER, *--number* NUMBER::
193 Only show identity keys for the given phone number.
197 Set the trust level of a given number. The first time a key for a number is seen,
198 it is trusted by default (TOFU). If the key changes, the new key must be trusted
202 Specify the phone number, for which to set the trust.
204 *-a*, *--trust-all-known-keys*::
205 Trust all known keys of this user, only use this for testing.
207 *-v* VERIFIED_FINGERPRINT, *--verified-fingerprint* VERIFIED_FINGERPRINT::
208 Specify the safety number or fingerprint of the key, only use this option if you have verified
213 Update the name and/or avatar image visible by message recipients for the current users.
214 The profile is stored encrypted on the Signal servers. The decryption key is sent
215 with every outgoing messages (excluding group messages).
218 New name visible by message recipients.
221 Path to the new avatar visible by message recipients.
224 Remove the avatar visible by message recipients.
228 signal-cli can run in daemon mode and provides an experimental dbus interface. For
229 dbus support you need jni/unix-java.so installed on your system (Debian:
230 libunixsocket-java ArchLinux: libmatthew-unix-java (AUR)).
233 Use DBus system bus instead of user bus.
234 *--ignore-attachments*::
235 Don’t download attachments of received messages.
241 Register a number (with SMS verification)::
242 signal-cli -u USERNAME register
244 Verify the number using the code received via SMS or voice::
245 signal-cli -u USERNAME verify CODE
247 Send a message to one or more recipients::
248 signal-cli -u USERNAME send -m "This is a message" [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]] [-a [ATTACHMENT [ATTACHMENT ...]]]
250 Pipe the message content from another process::
251 uname -a | signal-cli -u USERNAME send [RECIPIENT [RECIPIENT ...]]
254 signal-cli -u USERNAME updateGroup -n "Group name" -m [MEMBER [MEMBER ...]]
256 Add member to a group::
257 signal-cli -u USERNAME updateGroup -g GROUP_ID -m "NEW_MEMBER"
260 signal-cli -u USERNAME quitGroup -g GROUP_ID
262 Send a message to a group::
263 signal-cli -u USERNAME send -m "This is a message" -g GROUP_ID
265 Trust new key, after having verified it::
266 signal-cli -u USERNAME trust -v FINGER_PRINT NUMBER
268 Trust new key, without having verified it. Only use this if you don't care about security::
269 signal-cli -u USERNAME trust -a NUMBER
273 The password and cryptographic keys are created when registering and stored in the
274 current users home directory, the directory can be changed with *--config*:
276 `$XDG_DATA_HOME/signal-cli/` (`$HOME/.local/share/signal-cli/`)
278 For legacy users, the old config directories are used as a fallback:
280 $HOME/.config/signal/
282 $HOME/.config/textsecure/
288 Maintained by AsamK <asamk@gmx.de>, who is assisted by other open
289 source contributors. For more information about signal-cli development, see
290 <https://github.com/AsamK/signal-cli>.