The `cci` Command Line#

Basic Operation#

Tip

If you’re new to working with command line interfaces, the Install Visual Studio Code Trailhead module covers installing and opening a terminal window in Visual Studio Code.

After installing CumulusCI, use the cci command in your terminal or command prompt to interact with it.

On any platform, you can use the integrated terminal in Visual Studio Code. Alternately, on macOS, access the terminal via Terminal.app; on Windows, open cmd.exe; or on Linux, use your preferred terminal application.

To see all available commands, type cci in your terminal.

$ cci
Usage: cci [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
--help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
error    Get or share information about an error
flow     Commands for finding and running flows for a project
org      Commands for connecting and interacting with Salesforce orgs
plan     Commands for getting information about MetaDeploy plans
project  Commands for interacting with project repository configurations
service  Commands for connecting services to the keychain
shell    Drop into a Python shell
task     Commands for finding and running tasks for a project
version  Print the current version of CumulusCI

To retrieve information on a specific command, type cci <command>.

Let’s examine the cci task command:

$ cci task
Usage: cci task [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Commands for finding and running tasks for a project

Options:
--help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
doc   Exports RST format documentation for all tasks
info  Displays information for a task
list  List available tasks for the current context
run   Runs a task

We can see that the cci task command has many useful subcommands, such as cci task info.

List Tasks, Flows, and Plans#

CumulusCI ships with many standard tasks and flows. In addition, your project might have one or more MetaDeploy plans. The following commands list all available tasks, flows, and plans for a project:

$ cci task list
$ cci flow list
$ cci plan list

The tasks, flows, and plans listed are specific to the project directory that you’re in when you run the command. For example, if you have a custom flow defined in your cumulusci.yml file for Project A, it will only be listed if you run cci flow list in Project A’s root directory.

The tasks and flows are listed by their group attribute as specified in the cumulusci.yml file. It’s easy to edit these groups as you see fit. Any modifications will be reflected in the list commands.

Task Info and Options#

For additional information on task <name>, run either command:

$ cci task info <name>
$ cci task run <name> --help

Information about specific tasks includes:

A description of the task.
The Python class associated with this task.
The syntax for running the command.
Any options accepted or required by the task.

Each option available for a given task also lists:

The syntax for the option (--<name> value).
Whether the option is required or optional.
A description of the option.

Let’s examine the util_sleep task:

$ cci task info util_sleep
util_sleep

Description: Sleeps for N seconds

Class: cumulusci.tasks.util.Sleep

Command Syntax

    $ cci task run util_sleep

Options

    --seconds SECONDS
    Required
    The number of seconds to sleep
    Default: 5

Flow Info and Options#

For additional information on flow <name>, run either command:

$ cci flow info <name>
$ cci flow run --help

Information about specific flows includes:

A description of the flow.
The ordered steps (and substeps) of a flow.

For example, listing the info for the dev_org flow shows that it’s composed of three subflows: dependencies, deploy_unmanaged, and config_dev, and one task: snapshot_changes. The tasks and flows making up the three subflows are also listed.

$ cci flow info dev_org
Description: Set up an org as a development environment for unmanaged metadata
1) flow: dependencies [from current folder]
    1) task: update_dependencies
    2) task: deploy_pre
2) flow: deploy_unmanaged
    0) task: dx_convert_from
    when: project_config.project__source_format == "sfdx" and not org_config.scratch
    1) task: unschedule_apex
    2) task: update_package_xml
    when: project_config.project__source_format != "sfdx" or not org_config.scratch
    3) task: deploy
    when: project_config.project__source_format != "sfdx" or not org_config.scratch
    3.1) task: dx_push
    when: project_config.project__source_format == "sfdx" and org_config.scratch
    4) task: uninstall_packaged_incremental
    when: project_config.project__source_format != "sfdx" or not org_config.scratch
3) flow: config_dev
    1) task: deploy_post
    2) task: update_admin_profile
4) task: snapshot_changes

Plan Info and Options#

Your project may have one or more defined MetaDeploy plans, though none come preconfigured with CumulusCI. If you have plans, for additional information on plan <name>, run the following command:

$ cci plan info <name>

Information about specific plans includes:

Configuration settings (slug, tier, etc)
Messages
Plan preflight checks
Step preflight checks
An ordered list of steps

By default all of the above information is displayed. You can display only the list of messages by using the command line option --messages

The following example shows the output of a typical plan, in this case a plan named ‘config’.

$ cci plan info config
         Config

  Key        Value
 ──────────────────────
  YAML Key   config
  Slug       config
  Tier       secondary
  Hidden?    No

                                    Messages

  Type           Message
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Title          Express Setup Configuration Plan
  Preflight      This will install metadata configurations into your org.
  Post-install   Thanks for installing Advisor Link. Visit the Trailblazer Community
                 for any questions about Advisor Link.
  Error          If you experience an issue with the installation, please post
                 in the Trailblazer Community.

                                Plan Preflights

  Action   Message                            When
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  error    My Domain must be enabled in       '.my.' not in
           your org before installation.      org_config.instance_url
  error    Chatter must be enabled in your    not
           org before installation.           tasks.check_chatter_enabled()
  error    Enhanced Notes must be enabled     not
           in your org before installation.   tasks.check_enhanced_notes_enab…

                                Step Preflights

  Step   Action   Message   When
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  4      skip               'PID_Customer_Community_Plus' not in
                            tasks.get_available_licenses()
  5      skip               'PID_Customer_Community_Plus_Login' not in
                            tasks.get_available_licenses()

                                     Steps

  Step   Name                                           Required   Recommended
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  1      Express Setup - Additional Unpackaged          No         Yes
         Metadata
  2      Express Setup - Sample Reports and             No         Yes
         Dashboards
  3      Express Setup - Lightning App and Advisor      No         Yes
         Profile
  4      Express Setup - Advisee Profile                No         Yes
  5      Express Setup - Advisee Portal Profile         No         Yes
  6      Express Setup - Permission Sets                No         Yes
  7      Express Setup - Advisor Sharing Metadata       No         Yes

Run Tasks and Flows#

Execute a specific task or flow with the run command.

$ cci task run <name> --org <org> [options]
$ cci flow run <name> --org <org> [options]

This command runs the task or flow <name> against the org <org>.

Tip

You can see a list of available orgs by running cci org list.

For example, the run_tests task executes Apex unit tests in a given org. Assuming there exists an org named dev, you can run this task against it with the command cci task run run_tests --org dev.

Get Help Running Tasks#

If you’re not certain about what a specific command does, use the --help flag to get more information.

$ cci task info <name> --help

When the --help flag is specified for a command, the output includes:

A usage statement featuring the syntax that executes the command.
A description of the command.
The list of available options for use with the command.

$ cci task --help
Usage: cci task [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
--help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
doc   Exports RST format documentation for all tasks
info  Displays information for a task
list  List available tasks for the current context
run   Runs a task

If you’re just getting started with CumulusCI and aren’t sure which of the many tasks and flows to use, don’t worry. We show you specific tasks and flows in later sections of the documentation.

Specify Task Options When Running Flows#

When executing a flow with cci flow run, you can specify options on specific tasks in the flow with the following syntax:

$ cci flow run <flow_name> -o <task_name>__<option_name> <value>

<flow_name> is the name of the flow to execute, <task_name> is the name of the task you wish to specify an option for, <option_name> is the option on the task you want to specify, and <value> is the actual value you want to assign to the task option.

For example, in the above output from cci flow info dev_org if we wanted to set the allow_newer option on the update_dependencies to True, we would use the following:

$ cci flow run dev_org --org dev -o update_dependencies__allow_newer True

Note

If the specified task executes more than once in the flow, it uses the given option value each time it executes.

If you want to configure specific task options on flows without explicitly listing them see Configure Options on Tasks in Flows.

Access and Manage Orgs#

CumulusCI makes it easy to create, connect, and manage orgs. The cci org top-level command helps you work with orgs.

To learn about working with orgs in detail, read Manage Scratch Orgs and Connect Persistent Orgs.

Manage Services#

Services represent external resources used by CumulusCI automation, such as access to a GitHub account or a MetaDeploy instance.

List Services#

You can have CumulusCI show you a list of all possible services supported. Services that are not currently configured will be displayed in a dimmed row.

$ cci service list

Connect A Service#

To connect a service to the global keychain (which we recommend for almost all situations) you can use:

$ cci service connect <service_type> <service_name>

If you wanted to connect to your personal GitHub account as a service you could use:

$ cci service connect github personal

CumulusCI will prompt you for the required information for the given service type.

If you want a service to onlye be available to a given project you can pass the --project flag.

$ cci service connect <service_type> <service_name> --project

Set a Default Service#

The first service connected for a given service type is automatically set as the default service for that type. If you have multiple services connected for a given type and would like to set a new default use:

$ cci service default <service_type> <service_name>

Rename a Service#

To rename a service use:

$ cci service rename <service_type> <old_name> <new_name>

Remove a Service#

To remove a service use:

$ cci service remove <service_type> <service_name>

Troubleshoot Errors#

Errors happen! That’s why cci provides tools to extract error details so that they can be reported and triaged.

Report Error Logs#

The cci error gist command sends the most recent log file to a GitHub gist so you can quickly and easily share logs with others. For this feature to work you need to make sure that your GitHub service is set up with the proper scopes.

The gist includes:

The current version of cci
The current Python version
The path to the Python executable
sysname of the host (such as Darwin)
The machine name of the host (such as x86_64)
The most recent log file (cci.log) that CumulusCI has created.

The URL for the gist is displayed in the terminal as output, and a web browser automatically opens a tab to the gist.

View Stack Traces#

If you encounter an error and want more information on what caused it, the cci error info command displays the stack trace (if present) from the last command executed in CumulusCI.

Note

The stack trace displayed is a Python stacktrace. This is helpful for locating where CumulusCI encountered an error in the source code.

See Stack Traces Automatically#

If you’d like to investigate bugs in CumulusCI, set the config option show_stacktraces to True under the cli section of ~/.cumulusci/cumulusci.yml. It turns off suppression of stack traces.

Usage errors (such as incorrect command line arguments, missing files, and so on) don’t show exception tracebacks because they are seldom helpful in that case.

For help with troubleshooting errors or stack traces, reach out to the CumulusCI team on the CumulusCI Trailblazer Community Group.

The `--debug` Flag#

All CumulusCI commands can be passed the --debug flag, so that:

Any calls to CumulusCI’s logger at the debug level are shown.
Outgoing HTTP requests are logged.
If an error is present, the corresponding stack trace is shown, and the user is dropped into a post-mortem debugging session.

Note

To exit a debugging session, type the command quit or exit.

Log Files#

CumulusCI creates a log file every time a cci command runs. There are six rotating log files (cci.log, cci.log1...5) with cci.log being the most recent. Log files are stored under ~/.cumulusci/logs for Mac and Linux users, and C:\Users\<Your User>\.cumulusci\logs for Windows users.

By default, log files document:

The last command that was entered by the user.
All output from the command (including debug information).
If a Python-level exception occurs, the corresponding stack trace.

If you want debug information regarding HTTP calls made during execution, you must explicitly run the command with the --debug flag set.

$ cci task run <name> --org <org> --debug
$ cci flow run <name> --org <org> --debug

The cci Command Line#

Basic Operation#

List Tasks, Flows, and Plans#

Task Info and Options#

Flow Info and Options#

Plan Info and Options#

Run Tasks and Flows#

Get Help Running Tasks#

Specify Task Options When Running Flows#

Access and Manage Orgs#

Manage Services#

List Services#

Connect A Service#

Set a Default Service#

Rename a Service#

Remove a Service#

Troubleshoot Errors#

Report Error Logs#

View Stack Traces#

See Stack Traces Automatically#

The --debug Flag#

Log Files#

The `cci` Command Line#

The `--debug` Flag#