openai-cli

OpenAI CLI

The official CLI for the OpenAI REST API.

Installation

Installing with Homebrew

brew install openai/tools/openai

Installing with Go

To test or install the CLI locally, you need Go version 1.25 or later installed.

go install 'github.com/openai/openai-cli/cmd/openai@latest'

Once you have run go install, the binary is placed in your Go bin directory:

• Default location: $HOME/go/bin (or $GOPATH/bin if GOPATH is set)
• Check your path: Run go env GOPATH to see the base directory

If commands aren't found after installation, add the Go bin directory to your PATH:

# Add to your shell profile (.zshrc, .bashrc, etc.)
export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

Running Locally

After cloning the git repository for this project, you can use the scripts/run script to run the tool locally:

./scripts/run args...

Usage

The CLI follows a resource-based command structure:

openai [resource]  [flags...]

Standard API endpoints require an API key:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

openai responses create \
  --input "Say this is a test" \
  --model gpt-5.5

Admin endpoints require an admin API key:

export OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY="sk-admin-..."

openai admin:organization:usage completions \
  --start-time 1735689600 \
  --end-time 1735776000 \
  --bucket-width 1d

For details about specific commands, use the --help flag.

Environment variables

Global flags

• --api-key (can also be set with OPENAI_API_KEY env var)
• --admin-api-key (can also be set with OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY env var)
• --organization (can also be set with OPENAI_ORG_ID env var)
• --project (can also be set with OPENAI_PROJECT_ID env var)
• --webhook-secret (can also be set with OPENAI_WEBHOOK_SECRET env var)
• --mtls-client-cert-file (can also be set with OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_CERT_FILE env var)
• --mtls-client-key-file (can also be set with OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_KEY_FILE env var)
• --help - Show command line usage
• --debug - Enable debug logging. This includes HTTP request/response details and bodies; do not share debug logs if they may contain sensitive payloads.
• --version, -v - Show the CLI version
• --base-url - Use a custom API backend URL
• --header, -H - Add a literal request header as Name: Value; repeat for multiple headers
• --format - Change the output format (auto, explore, json, jsonl, pretty, raw, yaml)
• --format-error - Change the output format for errors (auto, explore, json, jsonl, pretty, raw, yaml)
• --transform - Transform the data output using GJSON syntax
• --transform-error - Transform the error output using GJSON syntax

Request headers

Use --header or -H before or after a resource command:

openai --header 'X-Trace-ID: example-123' models list \
  -H 'X-Client-Label: local,manual'

Values are literal: commas and colons are preserved, and @ prefixes do not read files. Surrounding spaces and tabs are trimmed from values. -H 'X-Example:' sends an empty value. If a name is repeated, the last value wins regardless of case, overriding default and endpoint-specific headers. Headers managed by the HTTP transport, such as Host and Content-Length, retain the transport's behavior. Supplied header values are hidden in help and redacted in debug logs.

For credential-bearing headers, have a secret manager or trusted launcher set OPENAI_CUSTOM_HEADERS directly in the CLI's environment. This keeps credentials out of command arguments and avoids typing literal secrets into shell history. The variable accepts one Name: Value entry per line. For example, with non-sensitive values:

export OPENAI_CUSTOM_HEADERS='X-Trace-ID: example-123
X-Client-Label: local,manual'
openai models list

--header and endpoint-specific header flags override matching environment entries. Environment header values are also redacted in debug logs. Use OPENAI_API_KEY and OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY for standard API and admin authentication.

Mutual TLS

Mutual TLS is currently in beta. To opt in and activate a CA certificate for your organization or project, follow the OpenAI Mutual TLS Beta Program instructions.

To authenticate API-key requests with a mutual TLS client certificate, provide the client certificate and private key as separate PEM files. If certificate chain support is enabled for your organization, the certificate file must contain the leaf certificate first, followed by any intermediate certificates. Otherwise, use a client certificate signed directly by an activated CA certificate.

export OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_CERT_FILE=/run/secrets/openai/client-chain.pem
export OPENAI_MTLS_CLIENT_KEY_FILE=/run/secrets/openai/client.key
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://mtls.api.openai.com/v1

openai files list

Both mTLS files must be configured together. Keep the private key in a permission-restricted file; do not put private-key contents directly in command arguments or environment variables. The CLI does not automatically select an mTLS endpoint, so configure OPENAI_BASE_URL or --base-url explicitly. HTTP and SOCKS proxies remain supported, but HTTPS proxies are rejected to prevent presenting the client certificate during the proxy's own TLS handshake.

Passing files as arguments

To pass files to your API, you can use the @myfile.ext syntax:

openai  --arg @abe.jpg

Files can also be passed inside JSON or YAML blobs:

openai  --arg '{image: "@abe.jpg"}'
# Equivalent:
openai   --file ./upload.txt

In this mode, values supplied through stdin are treated as literal data: @, @file://, and @data:// references in request bodies, headers, and query parameters do not read local files. File-upload parameters must be provided explicitly as command-line flags. Explicit flags retain their normal file behavior and take precedence over values supplied through stdin. Leave OPENAI_UNTRUSTED_STDIN unset when using trusted heredocs or other trusted piped input that intentionally references local files.

If you need to pass a string literal that begins with an @ sign, you can escape the @ sign to avoid accidentally passing a file.

openai  --username '\@abe'

Explicit encoding

For JSON endpoints, the CLI tool does filetype sniffing to determine whether the file contents should be sent as a string literal (for plain text files) or as a base64-encoded string literal (for binary files). If you need to explicitly send the file as either plain text or base64-encoded data, you can use @file://myfile.txt (for string encoding) or @data://myfile.dat (for base64-encoding). Note that absolute paths will begin with @file:// or @data://, followed by a third / (for example, @file:///tmp/file.txt).

openai  --arg @data://file.txt

Linking different Go SDK versions

You can link the CLI against a different version of the OpenAI Go SDK for development purposes using the ./scripts/link script.

To link to a specific version from a repository (version can be a branch, git tag, or commit hash):

./scripts/link github.com/org/repo@version

To link to a local copy of the SDK:

./scripts/link ../path/to/openai-go

If you run the link script without any arguments, it will default to ../openai-go.

License

Copyright 2026 OpenAI

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.