generated: '2026-08-27'
method: searched
source: >-
  https://github.com/elastic/ecctl (README fetched 2026-08-27),
  https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/ecctl (HTTP 200),
  https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/elasticsearch/command-line-tools (HTTP 200),
  and the Go module proxy for the ecctl release version.
note: >-
  Elastic ships no single "elastic" CLI. There is one CLI that genuinely wraps
  an Elastic REST API — ecctl, over the Elastic Cloud API — and a large family
  of node-local operational binaries that ship inside the Elasticsearch and
  Kibana distributions and do NOT talk to the REST API at all. Keeping those
  apart matters: an agent looking for a scriptable way to drive Elastic through
  its API wants ecctl or the Terraform provider, not elasticsearch-keystore.
clis:
- name: ecctl
  full_name: Elastic Cloud Control
  official: true
  wraps_api: elk-stack:elastic-cloud-api
  repository: https://github.com/elastic/ecctl
  docs: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/ecctl
  language: Go
  version: v1.15.0
  published: '2025-06-13'
  version_source: https://proxy.golang.org/github.com/elastic/ecctl/@latest
  currency_note: >-
    Over a year without a release (v1.15.0, 2025-06-13) while the Elastic Cloud
    API it wraps kept shipping. Elastic's own README now steers users elsewhere:
    "While it's possible to create and manage deployments through ecctl, the
    Elastic Cloud Terraform provider provides a better interface." Read this as
    a soft deprecation rather than an actively developed CLI.
  install:
  - method: homebrew
    command: brew install ecctl
  - method: binary
    command: Download the release archive for your platform from https://github.com/elastic/ecctl/releases
  - method: go
    command: go install github.com/elastic/ecctl@latest
  install_note: >-
    Install methods are the standard Go/Homebrew/binary set named on the
    project's install page; each was read from Elastic's documentation rather
    than assumed, but no install command was executed to verify it.
  command_groups:
  - group: deployment
    detail: create, list, show, update, shutdown, restore, resync, search deployments and their Elasticsearch/Kibana/APM/Enterprise Search resources
  - group: platform
    detail: allocator, constructor, proxy, runner, repository, instance-configuration, enrollment-token — Elastic Cloud Enterprise platform administration
  - group: user
    detail: create, list, show, update, delete platform users
  - group: auth
    detail: key management and login for the Cloud API
  - group: comment
    detail: attach operator comments to platform resources
  - group: stack
    detail: list and manage available Elastic Stack versions
  key_flows:
  - Provision a deployment from a deployment template and read back its endpoints and credentials
  - Scale or upgrade an existing deployment by submitting a plan and following it to completion
  - Shut down and later restore a deployment (see the reversibility block in conventions/elk-stack-conventions.yml)
- name: elasticsearch command-line tools
  official: true
  wraps_api: null
  docs: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/elasticsearch/command-line-tools
  language: Java/shell
  version: null
  published: null
  version_note: >-
    Versioned with the Elasticsearch distribution rather than published to any
    package registry, so there is no metadata endpoint to read a version from.
  detail: >-
    Node-local operational binaries bundled in the Elasticsearch distribution —
    elasticsearch-keystore, elasticsearch-certutil, elasticsearch-users,
    elasticsearch-reconfigure-node, elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token,
    elasticsearch-node, elasticsearch-shard, elasticsearch-syskeygen.
  api_relevance: >-
    None. These run ON a node and read/write its local files; they are not a
    client for the REST API and cannot be used remotely.
related_tooling:
- name: Elastic Cloud Terraform provider
  repository: https://github.com/elastic/terraform-provider-ec
  official: true
  note: >-
    Elastic's own recommended interface for managing Elastic Cloud
    programmatically, in preference to ecctl. Not a CLI, so recorded here
    rather than above.
- name: elastic-package
  repository: https://github.com/elastic/elastic-package
  official: true
  note: Developer CLI for building and testing Elastic integration packages; targets the package registry, not the stack REST API.