PatternFly CLI

The PatternFly CLI is a command-line tool for scaffolding projects, performing code modifications, and running project-related tasks. It streamlines everyday development work and PatternFly upgrades, making it convenient and easy to work straight from the terminal. You can run it in the terminal on its own, or use it from an AI-enabled editor (such as Cursor) so coding agents can rely on the same predictable commands for scaffolding, updates, and git workflows. The published package is @patternfly/patternfly-cli on npm.

The npm package installs two equivalent entry points: patternfly-cli and the shorter alias pfcli. The examples below use patternfly-cli, but you can substitute pfcli in your own usage if you prefer.

• Project scaffolding: Quickly set up new PatternFly based projects for development and prototyping via predefined templates.
• Code modifications: Automate repetitive code changes to help accelerate PatternFly version upgrades.
• Task execution: Run project-related tasks such as committing and pushing changes, pulling updates, and deploying your app to GitHub Pages.

There are a few key prerequisites to meet before using PatternFly CLI. For macOS, WSL, and Linux, we recommend using install script to address the following prerequisites (you might still need administrator access for system packages). For a Windows-based system, you will need to install the following items manually:

• Node.js (Versions 20–24) and npm
• Corepack, which is included with Node.js. After installing npm, enable via corepack enable
• GitHub CLI

You can pipe the repository install script into bash. This installs Node.js with nvm when node is not available, enables Corepack, installs GitHub CLI when it is missing, and installs the CLI globally from npm:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/patternfly/patternfly-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

The script might prompt you to include sudo when your system package manager installs GitHub CLI.

After installing the prerequisites on your machine, install the published package globally:

npm install -g @patternfly/patternfly-cli

After installation, you can verify the latest version of the CLI has been installed by running the following terminal command:

patternfly-cli --version

If you're starting a new project and publishing it, this is the usual sequence:

patternfly-cli create my-app   # create a new project from a template
cd my-app
patternfly-cli init            # set up Git and connect to GitHub
patternfly-cli save            # commit and push your changes
patternfly-cli deploy          # publish to GitHub Pages

For an existing project, use patternfly-cli update to migrate to a newer PatternFly version.

Once the PatternFly CLI is installed, you can run the following commands via patternfly-cli [command]:

For the most up-to-date flags and behavior guidance, refer to PatternFly CLI README on GitHub.

The following predefined templates ship with PatternFly CLI:

To use a template, pass the template name to patternfly-cli create [template name] or choose the template from the interactive prompt triggered by the generic patternfly-cli create comman. To print a list of all templates from your installed version, run patternfly-cli list.

Template definitions can be found in the patternfly-cli repo.

In addition to the predefined templates, you can add your own templates by passing a JSON file with --template-file (or -t). Custom templates are merged with the predefined list—if a custom template has the same name as a predefined template, the custom definition is used.

Create a project based on custom templates:

patternfly-cli create my-app --template-file ./my-templates.json

List templates included in custom file:

patternfly-cli list --template-file ./my-templates.json

JSON format (Array of template objects, shown in the same shape as the built-in templates):

[
  {
    "name": "my-template",
    "description": "My custom project template",
    "repo": "https://github.com/org/repo.git",
    "options": ["--single-branch", "--branch", "main"],
    "packageManager": "npm"
  }
]

• name (required): Template identifier
• description (required): Short description shown in prompts and list
• repo (required): Git clone URL
• options (optional): Array of extra arguments for git clone (such as ["--single-branch", "--branch", "main"])
• packageManager (optional): npm, yarn, or pnpm; defaults to npm if omitted

You can pipe the repository uninstall script into bash. It removes the globally installed @patternfly/patternfly-cli package with npm. It does not remove Node.js, nvm, Corepack, or GitHub CLI:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/patternfly/patternfly-cli/main/scripts/uninstall.sh | bash

If you installed the published package globally with npm, remove it with:

npm uninstall -g @patternfly/patternfly-cli