Metabase CLI

Metabase ships with some handy CLI commands. To view a list of commands, run the Metabase jar followed by help.

java --add-opens java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED -jar metabase.jar help

Metabase will print out the help text for available commands.

api-documentation

Generate a markdown file containing documentation for all API endpoints. This is written to a file called docs/api-documentation.md.

driver-methods | driver-methods _docs

Print a list of all multimethods available for a driver to implement. Add _docs to include their docstrings.

config-template

Generates a Markdown file with documentation and an example configuration file in YAML. The YAML template includes Metabase settings and their defaults. Metabase will save the file as docs/configuring-metabase/config-template.md.

drop-entity-ids

Drop entity IDs for instances of serializable models. Useful for migrating from v1 serialization (x.46 and earlier) to v2 (x.47+).

dump path & options

Note: this command is deprecated. Use export instead.

Serializes Metabase instance into directory path.

Options:

• -u, --user EMAIL - Export collections owned by the specified user
• -s, --state (active|all) - When set to active, do not dump archived entities. Default behavior is all
• --include-entity-id - Include entity_id property in all dumped entities. Default: false

dump-to-h2 h2-filename & opts

Transfer data from existing database to newly created H2 DB with specified filename. Target H2 file is deleted before dump, unless the –keep-existing flag is given.

Options:

• -k, --keep-existing - Do not delete target H2 file if it exists
• -p, --dump-plaintext - Do not encrypt dumped contents

environment-variables-documentation

Generates a markdown file containing documentation for environment variables relevant to configuring Metabase. The command only includes environment variables registered as defsettings. For a full list of environment variables, see https://www.metabase.com/docs/latest/configuring-metabase/environment-variables.

export path & options

Serialize Metabase instance into directory at path.

Options:

• -c, --collection ID - Export only specified ID(s). Use commas to separate multiple IDs. You can pass entity ids with eid:<...> as a prefix
• -C, --no-collections - Do not export any content in collections
• -S, --no-settings - Do not export settings.yaml
• -D, --no-data-model - Do not export any data model entities; useful for subsequent exports
• -f, --include-field-values - Include field values along with field metadata
• -s, --include-database-secrets - Include database connection details (in plain text; use caution)
• -e, --continue-on-error - Do not break execution on errors
• --full-stacktrace - Output full stacktraces on errors

help command-name | help

Show this help message listing valid Metabase commands. Use help command-name for specific command details.

import path & options

Load serialized Metabase instance as created by the export command from directory path.

Options:

• -e, --continue-on-error - Do not break execution on errors
• --full-stacktrace - Output full stacktraces on errors

load path & options

Note: this command is deprecated. Use import instead.

Load serialized Metabase instance as created by dump command from directory path.

Options:

• -m, --mode (skip|update) - Update or skip on conflicts. Default: skip
• -e, --on-error (continue|abort) - Abort or continue on error. Default: continue

load-from-h2 | load-from-h2 h2-connection-string

Transfer data from existing H2 database to the newly created MySQL or Postgres DB specified by env vars.

migrate direction

Run database migrations. Valid options for direction are up, force, down, print, or release-locks.

profile

Start Metabase the usual way and exit. Useful for profiling Metabase launch time.

reset-password email-address

Reset the password for a user with email-address.

rotate-encryption-key new-key

Rotate the encryption key of a metabase database. The MB_ENCRYPTION_SECRET_KEY environment variable has to be set to the current key, and the parameter new-key has to be the new key. new-key has to be at least 16 chars.

seed-entity-ids

Add entity IDs for instances of serializable models that don’t already have them.

version

Print version information about Metabase and the current system.

Additional useful commands

H2 SQL Shell

Open an SQL shell for the Metabase H2 DB:

java -cp metabase.jar org.h2.tools.Shell -url jdbc:h2:/path/to/metabase.db