CLI

The openmcf CLI is a single binary that handles the full deployment lifecycle: manifest loading, validation, module resolution, provisioner execution, and state management across Pulumi, OpenTofu, and Terraform.

Installation

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install plantonhq/tap/openmcf

# Verify
openmcf version

For other platforms, download the binary from GitHub Releases.

You also need at least one IaC engine installed:

# Pulumi
brew install pulumi

# OpenTofu
brew install opentofu

# Terraform
brew install terraform

How the CLI Works

Every deployment follows the same sequence regardless of which engine you choose:

1. Load a manifest from a file, clipboard, kustomize build, or stack input
2. Validate the manifest against its Protocol Buffer schema
3. Resolve the IaC module for the component kind
4. Execute the operation through the selected provisioner

You can let the CLI detect the provisioner automatically from the manifest's openmcf.org/provisioner label using unified commands, or choose explicitly with openmcf pulumi, openmcf tofu, or openmcf terraform.

In This Section

• CLI Reference — Complete command tree, all flags organized by group, exit codes, and file system paths. The single source of truth for flag names and behavior.

• Unified Commands — Provisioner-agnostic commands (apply, plan, init, destroy, refresh) that auto-detect the IaC engine from your manifest.

• Pulumi Commands — Pulumi-specific subcommands: init, preview, update/up, destroy, delete/rm, cancel, refresh.

• OpenTofu Commands — OpenTofu-specific subcommands: init, plan, apply, destroy, refresh, generate-variables, load-tfvars.

• Terraform Commands — Terraform-specific subcommands: init, plan, apply, destroy, refresh. Shares the same HCL modules and execution engine as OpenTofu.

• Module Management — Module resolution chain, the staging area, version pinning with checkout and pull, and CLI version management with upgrade and downgrade.

• Configuration & Utilities — CLI configuration (config set/get/list), manifest validation (validate), manifest loading (load), and version checking.

Quick Start

# Validate a manifest
openmcf validate -f database.yaml

# Deploy with automatic provisioner detection
openmcf apply -f database.yaml

# Preview changes before applying
openmcf plan -f database.yaml

# Tear down
openmcf destroy -f database.yaml

Or use a specific engine directly:

# Pulumi
openmcf pulumi up --manifest database.yaml --yes

# OpenTofu
openmcf tofu init --manifest database.yaml
openmcf tofu apply --manifest database.yaml --auto-approve

# Terraform
openmcf terraform init --manifest database.yaml
openmcf terraform apply --manifest database.yaml --auto-approve

Getting Help

openmcf --help
openmcf apply --help
openmcf pulumi --help
openmcf tofu init --help

Every command and subcommand supports --help.