--- title: "calicoctl user reference" description: "Reference overview of the calicoctl command-line tool for managing Calico Open Source network policy, BGP, IP address management, and node operations." product: "Calico Open Source" version: "3.32 (latest)" section: "Reference" canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/overview" --- # calicoctl user reference The command line tool, `calicoctl`, makes it easy to manage Calico network and security policy, as well as other Calico configurations. The full list of resources that can be managed, including a description of each, is described in the [Resource definitions](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) section. > **SECONDARY:** This section provides full reference information for `calicoctl`. To learn how to install and configure `calicoctl`, refer to [Installing calicoctl](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/operations/calicoctl/install.md). The calicoctl command line interface provides a number of resource management commands to allow you to create, modify, delete, and view the different Calico resources. This section is a command line reference for `calicoctl`, organized based on the command hierarchy. ## Top level help Run `calicoctl --help` to display the following help menu for the top level calicoctl commands. ```text Usage: calicoctl [options] [...] create Create a resource by file, directory or stdin. replace Replace a resource by file, directory or stdin. apply Apply a resource by file, directory or stdin. This creates a resource if it does not exist, and replaces a resource if it does exists. patch Patch a pre-existing resource in place. delete Delete a resource identified by file, directory, stdin or resource type and name. get Get a resource identified by file, directory, stdin or resource type and name. label Add or update labels of resources. validate Validate resource files for correctness. ipam IP address management. cluster Access cluster information. node Calico node management. version Display the version of calicoctl. Options: -h --help Show this screen. -l --log-level= Set the log level (one of panic, fatal, error, warn, info, debug) [default: panic] --context= The name of the kubeconfig context to use. --allow-version-mismatch Allow client and cluster versions mismatch. Description: The calicoctl command line tool is used to manage Calico network and security policy, to view and manage endpoint configuration, and to manage a Calico node instance. See 'calicoctl --help' to read about a specific subcommand. ``` > **SECONDARY:** In a multi cluster environment if you have a [kubeconfig](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/organize-cluster-access-kubeconfig/) file with multiple cluster contexts it is possible to directly change the context using calicoctl `--context` argument. > **SECONDARY:** The versions for Calico and calicoctl should be the same and calls to calicoctl will fail if the versions do not match. If needed, this can be overridden by using the `--allow-version-mismatch` argument. ## Top level command line options Details on the `calicoctl` commands are described in the documents linked below organized by top level command. - [calicoctl create](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/create.md) - [calicoctl replace](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/replace.md) - [calicoctl apply](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/apply.md) - [calicoctl patch](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/patch.md) - [calicoctl delete](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/delete.md) - [calicoctl get](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/get.md) - [calicoctl label](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/label.md) - [calicoctl validate](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/validate.md) - [calicoctl ipam](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/ipam/overview.md) - [calicoctl node](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/node.md) - [calicoctl version](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/version.md) ## Modifying low-level component configurations To update low-level Felix or BGP settings (`FelixConfiguration` and `BGPConfiguration` resource types): 1. Get the appropriate resource and store the yaml output in a file using `calicoctl get -o yaml --export > config.yaml`. 2. Modify the saved resource file. 3. Update the resource using `apply` or `replace` command: `calicoctl replace -f config.yaml`. See [Configuring Felix](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/felix/configuration.md) for more details. ## Supported resource definition aliases The following table lists supported aliases for Calico resources when using `calicoctl`. Note that all aliases are **case-insensitive**. | Resource definition | Supported calicoctl aliases | | ------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | BGP configuration | `bgpconfig`, `bgpconfigurations`, `bgpconfigs` | | BGP peer | `bgppeer`, `bgppeers`, `bgpp`, `bgpps`, `bp`, `bps` | | Felix configuration | `felixconfiguration`, `felixconfig`, `felixconfigurations`, `felixconfigs` | | Global network policy | `globalnetworkpolicy`, `globalnetworkpolicies`, `gnp`, `gnps` | | Global network set | `globalnetworkset`, `globalnetworksets` | | Host endpoint | `hostendpoint`, `hostendpoints`, `hep`, `heps` | | IP pool | `ippool`, `ippools`, `ipp`, `ipps`, `pool`, `pools` | | IP reservation | `ipreservation`, `ipreservations`, `reservation`, `reservations` | | Kubernetes controllers configuration | `kubecontrollersconfiguration`, `kubecontrollersconfig` | | Network policy | `networkpolicy`, `networkpolicies`, `policy`, `np`, `policies`, `pol`, `pols` | | Node | `node`, `nodes`, `no`, `nos` | | Profiles | `profile`, `profiles`, `pro`, `pros` | | Workload endpoint | `workloadendpoint`, `workloadendpoints`, `wep`, `weps` |