Nomad command-line interface (CLI) reference

The Nomad CLI is a well-behaved command-line application. In erroneous cases, the CLI returns a non-zero exit status. To view a list of available commands, run the nomad command with no arguments, -h, or --help. To access help for any specific subcommand, run the subcommand with the -h argument.

Autocomplete

Nomad's CLI supports command autocomplete.

To install autocomplete, run the nomad command with the -autocomplete-install option.

$ nomad -autocomplete-install

To uninstall autocomplete, run the nomad command with the -autocomplete-uninstall option.

$ nomad -autocomplete-uninstall

Command contexts

Nomad's CLI commands have implied contexts in their naming convention. Because the CLI is most commonly used to manipulate or query jobs, you can assume that any given command is working in that context unless the command name implies otherwise. For example, the nomad job run command runs a new job and the nomad status command queries information about existing jobs. Conversely, commands with a prefix in their name likely operate in a different context. Examples include the nomad agent-info or nomad node drain commands, which operate in the agent or node contexts respectively.

Remote usage

You may use the Nomad CLI to interact with a remote Nomad cluster, even when the local machine does not have a running Nomad agent. To do so, set the NOMAD_ADDR environment variable or use the -address=<addr> flag when running commands.

$ NOMAD_ADDR=https://remote-address:4646 nomad status
$ nomad status -address=https://remote-address:4646

The Nomad address must be reachable from your local machine. If the Nomad port is exposed to the public internet, we recommend configuring TLS. Refer to the tls block in agent configuration for details.

Environment variables

Nomad can use environment variables to configure command-line tool options. You may override these environment variables with individual flags.

Connection environment variables

• NOMAD_ADDR - The address of the Nomad server. Defaults to http://127.0.0.1:4646.

• NOMAD_REGION - The region of the Nomad server to forward commands to. Defaults to the Agent's local region

• NOMAD_NAMESPACE - The target namespace for queries and actions bound to a namespace. If set to *, job and alloc subcommands query all namespacecs authorized to user. Defaults to the "default" namespace.

• NOMAD_HTTP_AUTH - (Optional) This allows users to supply "Basic" HTTP authentication scheme (RFC 7617) information in environments where the Nomad API is behind an authenticating proxy server.

Access control list (ACL) environment variables

• NOMAD_TOKEN - The SecretID of an ACL token to use to authenticate API requests with.

CLI environment variables

• NOMAD_CLI_NO_COLOR - Disables colored command output.

Mutual TLS (mTLS) environment variables

• NOMAD_CLI_SHOW_HINTS - Enables ui-hints in common CLI command output.

• NOMAD_CLIENT_CERT - Path to a PEM encoded client certificate for TLS authentication to the Nomad server. Must also specify NOMAD_CLIENT_KEY.

• NOMAD_CLIENT_KEY - Path to an unencrypted PEM encoded private key matching the client certificate from NOMAD_CLIENT_CERT.

• NOMAD_CACERT - Path to a PEM encoded CA cert file to use to verify the Nomad server SSL certificate.

• NOMAD_CAPATH - Path to a directory of PEM encoded CA cert files to verify the Nomad server SSL certificate. If both NOMAD_CACERT and NOMAD_CAPATH are specified, NOMAD_CACERT is used.

• NOMAD_SKIP_VERIFY - Do not verify TLS certificate. This is highly not recommended.

• NOMAD_TLS_SERVER_NAME - The server name to use as the SNI host when connecting via TLS.

Nomad Enterprise license environment variables

• NOMAD_LICENSE_PATH - An absolute path to a Nomad Enterprise license file, for example /etc/nomad.d/license.hclic.

• NOMAD_LICENSE - The Nomad Enterprise license file contents as a string.