Nomad Commands (CLI)

Nomad is controlled via a very easy to use command-line interface (CLI). Nomad is only a single command-line application: nomad, which takes a subcommand such as "agent" or "status". The complete list of subcommands is in the navigation to the left.

The Nomad CLI is a well-behaved command line application. In erroneous cases, a non-zero exit status will be returned. It also responds to -h and --help as you would most likely expect.

To view a list of the available commands at any time, just run Nomad with no arguments. To get help for any specific subcommand, run the subcommand with the -h argument.

Each command has been conveniently documented on this website. Links to each command can be found on the left.

Autocomplete

Nomad's CLI supports command autocomplete. Autocomplete can be installed or uninstalled by running the following on bash or zsh shells:

$ nomad -autocomplete-install
$ 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 is used to run a new job, the nomad status command queries information about existing jobs, etc. 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

The Nomad CLI may be used 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 provided address must be reachable from your local machine. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this (VPN, SSH Tunnel, etc). If the port is exposed to the public internet it is highly recommended to configure TLS.