Passenger CLI

Passenger CLI is the Core of the Passenger. Every client uses the CLI internally and that also means you can use the Core as a standalone tool. It is a cross-platform tool written in C# that can be used on Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD. It is a stateless tool which means it does not store any data. It only processes the data and returns the result.

Database Interaction

Passenger CLI creates the database file and interacts with it and get using in both local and cloud methods. But in this article, we will focus on the local database since we are talking about a standalone tool.

Installation

You can download the latest version of the Passenger CLI from the downloads page or official GitHub repository. After downloading the binary, you can run start using it.

Usage

Passenger CLI has an help command that you can use to see the available commands and options. Also provides a detailed manual page which can be accessed by the man command.

Passenger needs a SECRET KEY to interact with the database. CLI itself does not store the key, so you need to provide it via environment variables. You can set the key by using the following command:

export SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key"
# or
source .env # if you have a .env file with the key

After setting the key, you can start using the Passenger CLI. But you need an account to create a database. Just after the registration, your database will be created and you can start using the Passenger CLI.

# Assuming you have the SECRET_KEY set
passenger register [username] [passphrase] # replace the placeholders with your data

And then, you must login to the CLI to manage your database. You can use the following command to login:

passenger login [username] [passphrase]

This command will create a JWT that valid for 10 minutes. You will need this token to interact with the database. You can use the following command to get the token.

Every command that requires authentication will take the token in first argument.

To use the JWT , you can copy and paste the token to the command (not best practice):

passenger fetchAll eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...

As you can see, the token is too long to copy and paste. So, here is a better way to use the token (still not best practice):

passenger fetchAll $(passenger login [username] [passphrase])
# or
passenger fetchAll `passenger login [username] [passphrase]`

Here is the best practice to use the token:

export JWT=$(passenger login [username] [passphrase])
passenger fetchAll $JWT

Rest of the commands are available on man page and --help command.

Outputs of the Commands

Since Passenger CLI is created to be a core tool, it produces JSON outputs and accepts JSON inputs. So you can consider learning jq to parse the outputs and inputs.

Exit Codes

Passenger CLI can be translated to HTTP status codes. As you may know, in shells, exit codes are 8-bit integers which means the highest value is 255. But in HTTP status codes, the highest value is 599. So, Passenger CLI uses the following exit codes:

Conclusion

Passenger CLI is a powerful tool that can be used as a standalone tool. It is a stateless tool that does not store any data. It is a cross-platform tool that can be used on Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD. It is a core tool that is used by every client internally. It produces JSON outputs and accepts JSON inputs. It uses HTTP status codes as exit codes.

If you are a nerd who loves to use the terminal, Passenger CLI is the best tool for you. But you may still consider Passenger Server if you want to use the Passenger on multiple devices.