Firebase CLI

What is Firebase CLI about?

Provides a comprehensive set of commands to interact with Firebase services directly from the terminal, enabling project initialization, configuration, deployment, and local emulation without leaving the command line.

How to use Firebase CLI?

1. Install – preferred via npx: npx -y firebase-tools (or globally with npm install -g firebase-tools).
2. Authenticate – run firebase login (or use a CI token with firebase login:ci).
3. Initialize a project – inside your project folder run firebase init to create firebase.json and select services.
4. Run commands – use firebase <command> --help for details, e.g., firebase deploy --only hosting or firebase emulators:start.
5. Programmatic use – require the package in Node: const client = require("firebase-tools"); and call methods like client.apps.list().

Key features

• Project management – create, list, and configure projects and apps.
• Deployment – one‑line deploy of Hosting, Cloud Functions, Firestore rules, Remote Config, etc.
• Local emulators – start emulators for Functions, Firestore, Realtime Database, and Hosting.
• Auth utilities – import/export users, generate CI tokens.
• Extensions – install, configure, list, and update Firebase Extensions.
• Secrets management – create, retrieve, and destroy secret values for Functions.
• CI/CD support – token‑based authentication and service‑account integration.
• Proxy configuration – works behind HTTP/HTTPS proxies via environment variables.

Use cases

• Automating website deployments to Firebase Hosting from CI pipelines.
• Running integration tests against local emulators before production release.
• Managing multiple Firebase projects and app instances from a single workstation.
• Bulk importing or exporting authentication users for migration.
• Programmatically scripting Firebase operations within custom Node tools.

FAQ

Q: How do I run the CLI in a CI environment? A: Generate a service account key, set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to its path, and use the CLI commands directly; no browser is required.

Q: Can I use the CLI without installing Node globally? A: Yes, invoke it with npx -y firebase-tools which downloads and runs the package on demand.

Q: What if I need to authenticate on a headless server? A: Use firebase login:ci to create a token and pass it via --token flag or FIREBASE_TOKEN env var.

Q: How do I start only the Functions emulator? A: Run firebase emulators:start --only functions.

Q: Where are the configuration files stored? A: Primary configuration resides in firebase.json at the project root; project aliases are defined in .firebaserc.

Firebase CLI

The Firebase Command Line Interface (CLI) Tools can be used to test, manage, and deploy your Firebase project from the command line.

• Deploy code and assets to your Firebase projects
• Run a local web server for your Firebase Hosting site
• Interact with data in your Firebase database
• Import/Export users into/from Firebase Auth

To get started with the Firebase CLI, read the full list of commands below or check out the documentation.

Installation

Node Package

You can install the Firebase CLI using npm (the Node Package Manager). Note that you will need to install Node.js and npm. Installing Node.js should install npm as well.

To download and install the Firebase CLI run the following command:

npm install -g firebase-tools

This will provide you with the globally accessible firebase command.

Standalone Binary

The standalone binary distribution of the Firebase CLI allows you to download a firebase executable without any dependencies.

To download and install the CLI run the following command:

curl -sL firebase.tools | bash

Commands

The command firebase --help lists the available commands and firebase <command> --help shows more details for an individual command.

If a command is project-specific, you must either be inside a project directory with an active project alias or specify the Firebase project id with the -P <project_id> flag.

Below is a brief list of the available commands and their function:

Configuration Commands

Command	Description
login	Authenticate to your Firebase account. Requires access to a web browser.
logout	Sign out of the Firebase CLI.
login:ci	Generate an authentication token for use in non-interactive environments.
login:add	Authorize the CLI for an additional account.
login:list	List authorized CLI accounts.
login:use	Set the default account to use for this project
use	Set active Firebase project, manage project aliases.
open	Quickly open a browser to relevant project resources.
init	Setup a new Firebase project in the current directory. This command will create a firebase.json configuration file in your current directory.
help	Display help information about the CLI or specific commands.

Append --no-localhost to login (i.e., firebase login --no-localhost) to copy and paste code instead of starting a local server for authentication. A use case might be if you SSH into an instance somewhere and you need to authenticate to Firebase on that machine.

Project Management Commands

Command	Description
apps:create	Create a new Firebase app in a project.
apps:list	List the registered apps of a Firebase project.
apps:sdkconfig	Print the configuration of a Firebase app.
projects:addfirebase	Add Firebase resources to a Google Cloud Platform project.
projects:create	Create a new Firebase project.
projects:list	Print a list of all of your Firebase projects.

Deployment and Local Emulation

These commands let you deploy and interact with your Firebase services.

Command	Description
emulators:exec	Start the local Firebase emulators, run a test script, then shut down the emulators.
emulators:start	Start the local Firebase emulators.
deploy	Deploys your Firebase project. Relies on firebase.json configuration and your local project folder.
serve	Start a local server with your Firebase Hosting configuration and HTTPS-triggered Cloud Functions. Relies on firebase.json.
setup:emulators:database	Downloads the database emulator.
setup:emulators:firestore	Downloads the firestore emulator.

App Distribution Commands

Command	Description
appdistribution:distribute	Upload a distribution.

Auth Commands

Command	Description
auth:import	Batch importing accounts into Firebase from data file.
auth:export	Batch exporting accounts from Firebase into data file.

Detailed doc is here.

Realtime Database Commands

Command	Description
database:get	Fetch data from the current project's database and display it as JSON. Supports querying on indexed data.
database:set	Replace all data at a specified location in the current project's database. Takes input from file, STDIN, or command-line argument.
database:push	Push new data to a list at a specified location in the current project's database. Takes input from file, STDIN, or command-line argument.
database:remove	Delete all data at a specified location in the current project's database.
database:update	Perform a partial update at a specified location in the current project's database. Takes input from file, STDIN, or command-line argument.
database:profile	Profile database usage and generate a report.
database:instances:create	Create a realtime database instance.
database:instances:list	List realtime database instances.
database:settings:get	Read the realtime database setting at path
database:settings:set	Set the realtime database setting at path.

Extensions Commands

Command	Description
ext	Display information on how to use ext commands and extensions installed to your project.
ext:configure	Configure an existing extension instance.
ext:info	Display information about an extension by name (extensionName@x.y.z for a specific version)
ext:install	Install an extension.
ext:sdk:install	Install and SDK for an extension so you can define the extension in a functions codebase.
ext:list	List all the extensions that are installed in your Firebase project.
ext:uninstall	Uninstall an extension that is installed in your Firebase project by Instance ID.
ext:update	Update an existing extension instance to the latest version.

Cloud Firestore Commands

Command	Description
firestore:delete	Delete documents or collections from the current project's database. Supports recursive deletion of subcollections.
firestore:indexes	List all deployed indexes from the current project.

Cloud Functions Commands

Command	Description
functions:log	Read logs from deployed Cloud Functions.
functions:list	List all deployed functions in your Firebase project.
functions:config:set	Store runtime configuration values for the current project's Cloud Functions.
functions:config:get	Retrieve existing configuration values for the current project's Cloud Functions.
functions:config:unset	Remove values from the current project's runtime configuration.
functions:config:clone	Copy runtime configuration from one project environment to another.
functions:secrets:set	Create or update a secret for use in Cloud Functions for Firebase.
functions:secrets:get	Get metadata for secret and its versions.
functions:secrets:access	Access secret value given secret and its version. Defaults to accessing the latest version.
functions:secrets:prune	Destroys unused secrets.
functions:secrets:destroy	Destroy a secret. Defaults to destroying the latest version.
functions:delete	Delete one or more Cloud Functions by name or group name.
functions:shell	Locally emulate functions and start Node.js shell where these local functions can be invoked with test data.

Hosting Commands

Command	Description
hosting:disable	Stop serving Firebase Hosting traffic for the active project. A "Site Not Found" message will be displayed at your project's Hosting URL after running this command.

Remote Config Commands

Command	Description
remoteconfig:get	Get a Firebase project's Remote Config template.
remoteconfig:versions:list	Get a list of the most recent Firebase Remote Config template versions that have been published.
remoteconfig:rollback	Roll back a project's published Remote Config template to the version provided by --version_number flag.

Use firebase:deploy --only remoteconfig to update and publish a project's Firebase Remote Config template.

Authentication

General

The Firebase CLI can use one of four authentication methods listed in descending priority:

• User Token - DEPRECATED: this authentication method will be removed in a future major version of firebase-tools; use a service account to authenticate instead - provide an explicit long-lived Firebase user token generated from firebase login:ci. Note that these tokens are extremely sensitive long-lived credentials and are not the right option for most cases. Consider using service account authorization instead. The token can be set in one of two ways:
  • Set the --token flag on any command, for example firebase --token="<token>" projects:list.
  • Set the FIREBASE_TOKEN environment variable.
• Local Login - run firebase login to log in to the CLI directly as yourself. The CLI will cache an authorized user credential on your machine.
• Service Account - set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable to point to the path of a JSON service account key file. For more details, see Google Cloud's Getting started with authentication guide.
• Application Default Credentials - if you use the gcloud CLI and log in with gcloud auth application-default login, the Firebase CLI will use them if none of the above credentials are present.

Multiple Accounts

By default firebase login sets a single global account for use on all projects. If you have multiple Google accounts which you use for Firebase projects you can authorize multiple accounts and use them on a per-project or per-command basis.

To authorize an additonal account for use with the CLI, run firebase login:add. You can view the list of authorized accounts with firebase login:list.

To set the default account for a specific Firebase project directory, run firebase login:use from within the directory and select the desired account. To check the default account for a directory, run firebase login:list and the default account for the current context will be listed first.

To set the account for a specific command invocation, use the --account flag with any command. For example firebase --account=user@domain.com deploy. The specified account must have already been added to the Firebase CLI using firebase login:add.

Cloud Functions Emulator

The Cloud Functions emulator is exposed through commands like emulators:start, serve and functions:shell. Emulated Cloud Functions run as independent node processes on your development machine which means they have their own credential discovery mechanism.

By default these node processes are not able to discover credentials from firebase login. In order to provide a better development experience, when you are logged in to the CLI through firebase login we take the user credentials and construct a temporary credential that we pass into the emulator through GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. We only do this if you have not already set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable yourself.

Using behind a proxy

The CLI supports HTTP(S) proxies via environment variables. To use a proxy, set the HTTPS_PROXY or HTTP_PROXY value in your environment to the URL of your proxy (e.g. HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:12345).

Using with CI Systems

The Firebase CLI requires a browser to complete authentication, but is fully compatible with CI and other headless environments.

Complete the following steps to run Firebase commands in a CI environment. Find detailed instructions for each step in Google Cloud's Getting started with authentication guide.

1. Create a service account and grant it the appropriate level of access to your project.
2. Create a service account key (JSON file) for that service account.
3. Store the key file in a secure, accessible way in your CI system.
4. Set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/key.json in your CI system when running Firebase commands.

To disable access for the service account, find the service account for your project in the Google Cloud Console, and then either remove the key, or disable or delete the service account.

Using as a Module

The Firebase CLI can also be used programmatically as a standard Node module. Each command is exposed as a function that takes positional arguments followed by an options object and returns a Promise.

So if we run this command at our command line:

$ firebase --project="foo" apps:list ANDROID

That translates to the following in Node:

const client = require("firebase-tools");
client.apps
  .list("ANDROID", { project: "foo" })
  .then((data) => {
    // ...
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    // ...
  });

The options object must be the very last argument and any unspecified positional argument will get the default value of "". The following two invocations are equivalent:

const client = require("firebase-tools");

// #1 - No arguments or options, defaults will be inferred
client.apps.list();

// #2 - Explicitly provide "" for all arguments and {} for options
client.apps.list("", {});

Note: when used in a limited environment like Cloud Functions, not all firebase-tools commands will work programatically because they require access to a local filesystem.