Meilisearch CLI

The official Meilisearch CLI — a single Rust binary that covers everything from day-to-day instance management to advanced data operations, with an interactive TUI mode for search, chat, and settings.

Interactive Search	Interactive Chat
Settings Overview	Settings Editor

Installation

# Quick install (latest release)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-cli/main/install.sh | sh

# Install a specific version
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-cli/main/install.sh | sh -s -- v0.1.0

# Custom install directory
INSTALL_DIR=~/.local/bin curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-cli/main/install.sh | sh

# From source
cargo install --path .

The binary is named msc (short for Meilisearch CLI):

msc --help

Quick Start

# Check server health
msc health

# Create an index and import data
msc index create movies --primary-key id
msc import movies --file movies.json

# Search
msc search movies "gatsby"

# Interactive search TUI
msc search movies -i

Project Management

The CLI supports multiple Meilisearch instances through named projects stored in ~/.config/msc/config.toml.

# Add a remote project
msc project add production --url https://my-instance.meilisearch.io --api-key masterKey123

# Switch default project
msc project use production

# List all projects
msc project list

# Target a specific project for one command
msc --project staging health

# Or skip the config file entirely
msc --url http://localhost:7700 --api-key masterKey123 health

Commands

Index Management

msc index list
msc index create <uid> [--primary-key <key>]
msc index get <uid>
msc index delete <uid>
msc index stats <uid>
msc index swap <index-a> <index-b>

Document Management

msc document add <uid> --file <path>
msc document add <uid> < data.json          # stdin
msc document get <uid> <id>
msc document list <uid> [--limit 20]
msc document delete <uid> <id>
msc document delete-all <uid>

Search

msc search <uid> <query> [--filter <expr>] [--facets <...>] [--limit <n>]
msc search <uid> -i                         # interactive TUI

Settings

msc settings get <uid>
msc settings update <uid> --file settings.json
msc settings reset <uid>
msc settings edit <uid>                     # opens $EDITOR
msc settings edit <uid> -i                  # interactive TUI
msc settings edit <uid> synonyms            # edit sub-resource in $EDITOR
msc settings diff <uid>

Tasks

msc task list [--status <status>] [--type <type>]
msc task get <id>
msc task cancel <uids>
msc task delete <uids>
msc task wait <id> [--timeout 60000]
msc task watch <id>

API Keys

msc key list
msc key get <key>
msc key create --actions search --indexes movies
msc key delete <key>

Import

msc import <uid> --file data.json
msc import <uid> --file data.ndjson --batch-size 10485760
msc import <uid> --file data.csv
msc import <uid> < stdin.ndjson

Clone

msc clone <source-uid> <dest-uid>
msc clone <source-uid> <dest-uid> --from production --to staging

Promote

msc promote --from local --to production
msc promote --from local --to staging --indexes products,categories
msc promote --from local --to production --dry-run

Local Instance

msc local start       # Docker preferred, binary fallback
msc local stop
msc local restart
msc local status
msc local logs [-f]
msc local reset       # wipe data, restart fresh
msc local upgrade     # upgrade to latest version

Dumps & Snapshots

msc dump create
msc dump snapshot

Chat

msc chat "What products do you have?"
msc chat -i                                 # interactive TUI

Server Info

msc health
msc version
msc stats

Output Formatting

msc search movies "query"                  # pretty-printed JSON in a terminal
msc search movies "query" | jq .hits       # compact JSON automatically when piped
msc --json search movies "query"           # force compact JSON (alias: --raw)
msc --pretty index list | less             # force human output when piped
msc search movies "query" --select id,title  # keep only these fields
msc --quiet import movies --file m.json    # no status messages on stderr

Results go to stdout; status messages and errors go to stderr. Set NO_COLOR to disable colors.

Using msc from Scripts and AI Agents

msc is designed to be driven by programs as well as people:

• JSON by default when piped. When stdout is not a terminal, every command prints compact JSON on stdout, and failures print a JSON error on stderr: {"error": {"kind", "code", "message", "exitCode", "hint", …}}.
• Meaningful exit codes. 0 ok, 1 error, 2 usage, 3 auth, 4 not found, 5 API error, 6 network, 7 task failed, 8 timeout.
• --wait on any write returns the finished task instead of a taskUid, and exits 7 if the task failed.
• --select keeps only the fields you need (--select uid,error.code).
• --dry-run previews destructive changes (index/document/key/task deletes, settings update and reset, clone, promote, local reset); --if-exists / --if-not-exists make creates and deletes safe to retry.
• No prompts without a terminal. Commands that would prompt or open a TUI fail fast with exit code 2 and a hint.
• Environment config: MSC_URL, MSC_API_KEY, MSC_PROJECT, MSC_WAIT, MSC_CONFIG.
• msc schema prints every command and argument as JSON.
• msc whoami shows which server and key are used, where they came from, and whether they work.
• msc api <METHOD> <PATH> calls any route with the same auth, errors and --wait; search --body '<json>' passes any search parameter.
• msc mcp runs an MCP server exposing every command as a tool: claude mcp add meilisearch -- msc mcp.
• msc skill install installs the bundled agent skill into ~/.claude/skills (or --local for one repository). Or install everything, the skill plus the MCP server, as a Claude Code plugin: /plugin marketplace add meilisearch/meilisearch-cli then /plugin install meilisearch-cli@meilisearch.

export MSC_URL=http://localhost:7700
msc index create movies --primary-key id --if-not-exists --wait
msc import movies --file movies.ndjson
msc search movies "dune" --select id,title --limit 5

See the agent guide and the output & exit codes reference.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/msc/config.toml

Migration note: users upgrading from earlier versions (when the binary was named meilisearch) will have their existing config at ~/.config/meilisearch/config.toml automatically migrated to the new location on first run.

default = "local"

[projects.local]
type = "local"
url = "http://127.0.0.1:7700"

[projects.production]
url = "https://my-instance.meilisearch.io"
api_key = "masterKey123"

Development

# Build
cargo build

# Run tests (integration tests target MSC_TEST_URL, default http://localhost:7700,
# and use an isolated config file, so your projects are never touched)
cargo test
MSC_TEST_URL=http://localhost:7799 cargo test

# Lint
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --check

License

MIT