# Buildkite CLI Tools Documentation

> Buildkite documentation for CLI tools, covering the Buildkite CLI (bk) for managing pipelines, builds, and agents, and the buildkite-agent CLI reference for agent operations, artifacts, meta-data, and pipeline uploads.

## Pipelines

### Agent

- [Overview](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent.md): Overview of the Buildkite agent, comparing self-hosted and Buildkite hosted agents, architecture, lifecycle, and CLI usage.

#### Command-line reference

- [Overview](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference.md): Overview of all buildkite-agent CLI commands for managing agents, artifacts, pipelines, and build operations.
- [start](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/start.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent start: flags for tags, token, configuration, spawn, and disconnect behavior.
- [annotate](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/annotate.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent annotate: adding Markdown annotations to build pages with styles and contexts.
- [annotation](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/annotation.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent annotation: removing existing build annotations by context.
- [artifact](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/artifact.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent artifact: uploading, downloading, and searching build artifacts across steps.
- [bootstrap](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/bootstrap.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent bootstrap: the internal command the agent runs to execute a job.
- [build](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/build.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent build: canceling builds from within a running job.
- [env](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/env.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent env: inspecting, setting, and unsetting environment variables in jobs.
- [job](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/job.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent job update: modifying job attributes like timeout_in_minutes during execution.
- [lock](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/lock.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent lock: coordinating concurrent builds on shared resources using named locks.
- [meta-data](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/meta-data.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent meta-data: key/value store for sharing data across build steps and agents.
- [oidc](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/oidc.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent oidc: requesting OIDC tokens for federated authentication with AWS, GCP, Azure.
- [pause](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/pause.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent pause: manually pausing a running agent to stop job dispatch.
- [pipeline](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/pipeline.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent pipeline upload: dynamically adding or replacing build steps from YAML/JSON.
- [redactor](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/redactor.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent redactor: adding sensitive values to the log redactor during builds.
- [resume](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/resume.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent resume: resuming a previously paused agent.
- [secret](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/secret.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent secret get: retrieving secrets from Buildkite secrets with automatic redaction.
- [step](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/step.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent step: getting and updating step attributes (label, priority) during a build.
- [stop](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/stop.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent stop: manually stopping a running agent.
- [tool](https://buildkite.com/docs/agent/cli/reference/tool.md): CLI reference for buildkite-agent tool: utilities for JWKS key generation and pipeline signing (experimental).

## Platform

### CLI

- [Overview](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli.md): Overview of the Buildkite CLI (bk) for managing agents, builds, jobs, artifacts, and packages.
- [Installation](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/installation.md): Installing the Buildkite CLI on Debian/Ubuntu, Red Hat, macOS (Homebrew), and Windows.
- [Configuration](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/configuration.md): Creating and configuring API access tokens for the Buildkite CLI.
- [Preflight](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/preflight.md): Running uncommitted local changes against a Buildkite pipeline using bk preflight (experimental): snapshots staged, unstaged, and untracked files to a temporary branch, triggers a build, monitors failures in real time, integrates with Buildkite Test Engine, and exposes flags, environment variables (PREFLIGHT, PREFLIGHT_SOURCE_COMMIT, PREFLIGHT_SOURCE_BRANCH), and exit codes for use with AI coding agents.

#### Command-line reference

- [Overview](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference.md): Index of all bk CLI command categories: agent, api, build, cluster, job, package, pipeline, and more.
- [agent](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/agent.md): CLI reference for bk agent: list, pause, resume, stop, and view agents.
- [api](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/api.md): CLI reference for bk api: interact with REST and GraphQL APIs from the command line.
- [artifacts](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/artifacts.md): CLI reference for bk artifacts: download and list build artifacts.
- [auth](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/auth.md)
- [build](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/build.md): CLI reference for bk build: create, cancel, view, list, and rebuild builds.
- [cluster](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/cluster.md): CLI reference for bk cluster: list and view cluster information.
- [config](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/config.md)
- [configure](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/configure.md): CLI reference for bk configure: add configuration for new organizations.
- [init](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/init.md): CLI reference for bk init: initialize a pipeline.yaml file.
- [job](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/job.md): CLI reference for bk job: cancel, list, log, reprioritize, retry, and view jobs.
- [maintainer](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/maintainer.md)
- [organization](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/organization.md)
- [package](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/package.md): CLI reference for bk package: push packages to a Buildkite registry.
- [pipeline](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/pipeline.md): CLI reference for bk pipeline: create, copy, list, convert, and view pipelines.
- [secret](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/secret.md)
- [user](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/user.md): CLI reference for bk user: invite users to your organization.
- [version](https://buildkite.com/docs/platform/cli/reference/version.md): CLI reference for bk version: display the installed CLI version.

## APIs

- [Overview](https://buildkite.com/docs/apis.md): Overview of Buildkite APIs: REST, GraphQL, webhooks, MCP server, agent API, and authentication.

## See also

- [Buildkite APIs Documentation](https://buildkite.com/docs/llms-buildkite-apis.txt): Buildkite documentation for APIs, covering the REST API, GraphQL API, webhooks, MCP server, agent API, model providers, API token management, portals, and rate limits.
- [Buildkite Agent Documentation](https://buildkite.com/docs/llms-agent.txt): Buildkite documentation for the Buildkite agent, covering self-hosted and Buildkite hosted agents, installation, configuration, CLI reference, queues, hooks, and lifecycle.