The Immich CLI

Immich has a CLI that allows you to perform certain actions from the command line. This CLI replaces the legacy CLI that was previously available. The CLI is hosted in the cli folder of the the main Immich github repository.

Features

• Upload photos and videos to Immich
• Check server version

More features are planned for the future.

Google Photos Takeout

If you are looking to import your Google Photos takeout, we recommend this community maintained tool immich-go

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or above
• Npm

If you can't install node/npm, there is also a Docker version available below.

Installation (NPM)

npm i -g @immich/cli

NOTE: if you previously installed the legacy CLI, you will need to uninstall it first:

npm uninstall -g immich

Installation (Docker)

If npm is not available on your system you can try the Docker version

docker run -it -v "$(pwd)":/import:ro -e IMMICH_API_KEY=https://your-immich-instance/api -e IMMICH_API_KEY=your-api-key ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-cli:latest

Please modify the IMMICH_INSTANCE_URL and IMMICH_API_KEY environment variables as suitable. You can also use a Docker env file to store your sensitive API key.

Usage

immich

Usage: immich [options] [command]

Command line interface for Immich

Options:
  -V, --version                     output the version number
  -d, --config                      Configuration directory (env: IMMICH_CONFIG_DIR)
  -h, --help                        display help for command

Commands:
  upload [options] [paths...]       Upload assets
  server-info                       Display server information
  login-key [instanceUrl] [apiKey]  Login using an API key
  logout                            Remove stored credentials
  help [command]                    display help for command

Commands

The upload command supports the following options:

Usage: immich upload [options] [paths...]

Upload assets

Arguments:
  paths                    One or more paths to assets to be uploaded

Options:
  -r, --recursive          Recursive (default: false, env: IMMICH_RECURSIVE)
  -i, --ignore [paths...]  Paths to ignore (env: IMMICH_IGNORE_PATHS)
  -h, --skip-hash          Don't hash files before upload (default: false, env: IMMICH_SKIP_HASH)
  -H, --include-hidden     Include hidden folders (default: false, env: IMMICH_INCLUDE_HIDDEN)
  -a, --album              Automatically create albums based on folder name (default: false, env: IMMICH_AUTO_CREATE_ALBUM)
  -A, --album-name <name>  Add all assets to specified album (env: IMMICH_ALBUM_NAME)
  -n, --dry-run            Don't perform any actions, just show what will be done (default: false, env: IMMICH_DRY_RUN)
  --delete                 Delete local assets after upload (env: IMMICH_DELETE_ASSETS)
  --help                   display help for command

Note that the above options can read from environment variables as well.

Quick Start

You begin by authenticating to your Immich server.

immich login-key [instanceUrl] [apiKey]

For instance,

immich login-key http://192.168.1.216:2283/api HFEJ38DNSDUEG

This will store your credentials in a auth.yml file in the configuration directory which defaults to ~/.config/. The directory can be set with the -d option or the environment variable IMMICH_CONFIG_DIR. Please keep the file secure, either by performing the logout command after you are done, or deleting it manually.

Once you are authenticated, you can upload assets to your Immich server.

immich upload file1.jpg file2.jpg

By default, subfolders are not included. To upload a directory including subfolder, use the --recursive option:

immich upload --recursive directory/

If you are unsure what will happen, you can use the --dry-run option to see what would happen without actually performing any actions.

immich upload --dry-run --recursive directory/

By default, the upload command will hash the files before uploading them. This is to avoid uploading the same file multiple times. If you are sure that the files are unique, you can skip this step by passing the --skip-hash option. Note that Immich always performs its own deduplication through hashing, so this is merely a performance consideration. If you have good bandwidth it might be faster to skip hashing.

immich upload --skip-hash --recursive directory/

You can automatically create albums based on the folder name by passing the --album option. This will automatically create albums for each uploaded asset based on the name of the folder they are in.

immich upload --album --recursive directory/

You can also choose to upload all assets to a specific album with the --album-name option.

immich upload --album-name "My summer holiday" --recursive directory/

It is possible to skip assets matching a glob pattern by passing the --ignore option. See the library documentation on how to use glob patterns. You can add several exclusion patterns if needed.

immich upload --ignore **/Raw/** --recursive directory/

immich upload --ignore **/Raw/** **/*.tif --recursive directory/

By default, hidden files are skipped. If you want to include hidden files, use the --include-hidden option:

immich upload --include-hidden --recursive directory/

Obtain the API Key

The API key can be obtained in the user setting panel on the web interface.