Home / Software / Arduino CLI / Configuration

Configuration

Author Arduino

v1.3.1

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Configuration keys

```
board_manager
```
- ```
additional_urls
```
  - the URLs to any additional Boards Manager package index files needed for your boards platforms.
- ```
enable_unsafe_install
```
  - set to
```
true
```
  to allow installation of packages that do not pass the checksum test. This is considered an unsafe installation method and should be used only for development purposes.
```
daemon
```
- options related to running Arduino CLI as a gRPC server.
- ```
port
```
  - TCP port used for gRPC client connections.
```
directories
```
- directories used by Arduino CLI.
- ```
data
```
  - directory used to store Boards/Library Manager index files and Boards Manager platform installations.
- ```
downloads
```
  - directory used to stage downloaded archives during Boards/Library Manager installations.
- ```
user
```
  - the equivalent of the Arduino IDE's "sketchbook" directory. Library Manager installations are made to the
```
libraries
```
  subdirectory of the user directory. Users can manually install 3rd party platforms in the
```
hardware
```
  subdirectory of the user directory.
- ```
builtin.libraries
```
  - the libraries in this directory will be available to all platforms without the need for the user to install them, but with the lowest priority over other installed libraries with the same name, it's the equivalent of the Arduino IDE's bundled libraries directory.
```
library
```
- configuration options relating to Arduino libraries.
- ```
enable_unsafe_install
```
  - set to
```
true
```
  to enable the use of the
```
--git-url
```
  and
```
--zip-file
```
  flags with
```
arduino-cli lib install
```
  . These are considered "unsafe" installation methods because they allow installing files that have not passed through the Library Manager submission process.
```
locale
```
- the language used by Arduino CLI to communicate to the user, the parameter is the language identifier in the standard POSIX format
```
<language>[_<TERRITORY>[.<encoding>]]
```
(for example
```
it
```
or
```
it_IT
```
, or
```
it_IT.UTF-8
```
).
```
logging
```
- configuration options for Arduino CLI's logs.
- ```
file
```
  - path to the file where logs will be written.
- ```
format
```
  - output format for the logs. Allowed values are
```
text
```
  or
```
json
```
  .
- ```
level
```
  - messages with this level and above will be logged. Valid levels are:
```
trace
```
  ,
```
debug
```
  ,
```
info
```
  ,
```
warn
```
  ,
```
error
```
  ,
```
fatal
```
  ,
```
panic
```
  .
```
metrics
```
- settings related to the collection of data used for continued improvement of Arduino CLI.
- ```
addr
```
  - TCP port used for metrics communication.
- ```
enabled
```
  - controls the use of metrics.
```
output
```
- settings related to text output.
- ```
no_color
```
  - ANSI color escape codes are added by default to the output. Set to
```
true
```
  to disable colored text output.
```
sketch
```
- configuration options relating to Arduino sketches.
- ```
always_export_binaries
```
  - set to
```
true
```
  to make
```
arduino-cli compile
```
  always save binaries to the sketch folder. This is the equivalent of using the
```
--export-binaries
```
  flag.
```
updater
```
- configuration options related to Arduino CLI updates
- ```
enable_notification
```
  - set to
```
false
```
  to disable notifications of new Arduino CLI releases, defaults to
```
true
```
```
build_cache
```
configuration options related to the compilation cache
- ```
path
```
  - the path to the folder under which build caches are stored.
- ```
extra_paths
```
  - a list of paths to look for precompiled artifacts if not found on
```
build_cache.path
```
  setting.
- ```
compilations_before_purge
```
  - interval, in number of compilations, at which the cache is purged, defaults to
```
10
```
  . When
```
0
```
  the cache is never purged.
- ```
ttl
```
  - cache expiration time of build folders. If the cache is hit by a compilation the corresponding build files lifetime is renewed. The value format must be a valid input for time.ParseDuration(), defaults to
```
720h
```
  (30 days).
```
network
```
- configuration options related to the network connection.
- ```
proxy
```
  - URL of the proxy server.
- ```
connection_timeout
```
  - network connection timeout, the value format must be a valid input for time.ParseDuration(), defaults to
```
60s
```
  (60 seconds).
```
0
```
  means it will wait indefinitely.
- ```
cloud_api.skip_board_detection_calls
```
  - if set to
```
true
```
  it will make the Arduino CLI skip network calls to Arduino Cloud API to help detection of an unknown board.

Default directories

The following are the default directories selected by the Arduino CLI if alternatives are not specified in the configuration file.

The

build_cache.path

default is OS-dependent:

on Linux (and other Unix-based OS) is: if
```
$XDG_CACHE_HOME
```
is defined,
```
$XDG_CACHE_HOME/arduino
```
. Otherwise
```
{HOME}/.config/arduino
```
.
on Windows is:
```
{HOME}/AppData/Local/arduino
```
on MacOS is:
```
{HOME}/Library/Caches/arduino
```

The
```
directories.data
```
default is OS-dependent:
- on Linux (and other Unix-based OS) is:
```
{HOME}/.arduino15
```
- on Windows is:
```
{HOME}/AppData/Local/Arduino15
```
- on MacOS is:
```
{HOME}/Library/Arduino15
```
The
```
directories.downloads
```
default is
```
{directories.data}/staging
```
. If the value of
```
{directories.data}
```
is changed in the configuration the user-specified value will be used.
The
```
directories.user
```
default is OS-dependent:
- on Linux (and other Unix-based OS) is:
```
{HOME}/Arduino
```
- on Windows is:
```
{DOCUMENTS}/Arduino
```
- on MacOS is:
```
{HOME}/Documents/Arduino
```

Configuration methods

Arduino CLI may be configured in three ways:

Command line flags
Environment variables
Configuration file

If a configuration option is configured by multiple methods, the value set by the method highest on the above list overwrites the ones below it.

If a configuration option is not set, Arduino CLI uses a default value.

arduino-cli config dump

displays the current configuration values.

Command line flags

Arduino CLI's command line flags are documented in the command line help and the Arduino CLI command reference.

Example

Setting an additional Boards Manager URL using the

--additional-urls

command line flag:

1$ arduino-cli core update-index --additional-urls https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_staging_index.json

Environment variables

All configuration options can be set via environment variables. The variable names start with

ARDUINO

, followed by the configuration key names, with each component separated by

. For example, the

ARDUINO_DIRECTORIES_USER

environment variable sets the

directories.user

configuration option.

On Linux or macOS, you can use the

export

command to set environment variables. On Windows cmd, you can use the

set

command.

ARDUINO_BOARD_MANAGER_ADDITIONAL_URLS

environment variables can be a list of space-separated URLs.

Example

Setting an additional Boards Manager URL using the

ARDUINO_BOARD_MANAGER_ADDITIONAL_URLS

environment variable:

1$ export ARDUINO_BOARD_MANAGER_ADDITIONAL_URLS=https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_staging_index.json

Setting multiple additional Boards Manager URLs using the

ARDUINO_BOARD_MANAGER_ADDITIONAL_URLS

environment variable:

1$ export ARDUINO_BOARD_MANAGER_ADDITIONAL_URLS="https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_staging_index.json https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_mbed_index.json"

Configuration file

arduino-cli config init

creates a new empty configuration file.

This allows saving the options set by command line flags or environment variables. For example:

1arduino-cli config init --additional-urls https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_staging_index.json

Locations

The default configuration file is named

arduino-cli.yaml

. The configuration file is searched in the following locations, in order of priority:

Location specified by the
```
--config-file
```
command line flag
Location specified by the
```
ARDUINO_CONFIG_FILE
```
environment variable
Location specified by the
```
ARDUINO_DIRECTORIES_DATA
```
environment variable

If multiple configuration files are present, the one highest on the above list is used. Configuration files are not combined.

The location of the active configuration file can be determined by running the command:

1arduino-cli config dump --verbose

Example

Setting an additional Boards Manager URL using a YAML format configuration file:

1board_manager:
2  additional_urls:
3    - https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_staging_index.json

Doing the same using a TOML format file:

1[board_manager]
2additional_urls = [ "https://downloads.arduino.cc/packages/package_staging_index.json" ]

JSON schema

The configuration file JSON schema can be used to independently validate the file content. This schema should be considered unstable in this version.

Arduino CLI

Guides

Configuration

Configuration keys

Default directories

Configuration methods

Command line flags

Example

Environment variables

Example

Configuration file

Locations

Example

JSON schema

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