Use the Twilio CLI Docker image

In order to utilize the CLI Docker image, you will need to make sure you have Docker installed and running on your system. For installation instructions, see the Docker website.

To run the Twilio CLI Docker image with an interactive bash shell, use:

docker run -it --rm twilio/twilio-cli bash

Once the container has finished downloading, and you have entered the shell, you can issue commands using the CLI. For example:

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$ docker run -it --rm twilio/twilio-cli bash
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root@1234:/twilio# twilio profiles:list
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ID      Account SID                         Active
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you     ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  true
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main    ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  false

It is also possible to pass commands directly to the Docker image for single, contained operations. For example, you can check the running version of the Twilio CLI with the following:

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$ docker run -it --rm twilio/twilio-cli twilio --version
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twilio-cli/3.0.0 linux-x64 node-v14.18.1

Since the container is cleaned up between each execution, it is useful to pass credentials and configuration directly to the Docker container instead of needing to use twilio login on each run.

If you have your profile credentials set as environment variables, you can pass them directly to the Docker container. The environment variables will be picked up by the containerized version of the Twilio CLI:

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$ export TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=...
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$ export TWILIO_API_KEY=...
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$ export TWILIO_API_SECRET=...
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$ docker run -it --rm \
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  -e TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID \
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  -e TWILIO_API_KEY \
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  -e TWILIO_API_SECRET \
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  twilio/twilio-cli twilio phone-numbers:list
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SID                                 Phone Number  Friendly Name
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PNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  +15558675310  (555) 867-5310

See the Docker run reference guide for more information about setting container environment variables.

Since the Twilio CLI stores your profile settings on your local file system, it's possible to share those settings with the Docker container by using Volumes. Your profiles will be inherited by the Docker container, without the need to login.

To share your local configuration with the Docker container, mount your system's ~/.twilio-cli directory to the container at /root/.twilio-cli using the -v flag. See the Docker run reference guide for more information about the -v flag.

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$ docker run -it --rm \
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  -v ~/.twilio-cli:/root/.twilio-cli \
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  twilio/twilio-cli twilio phone-numbers:list
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SID                                 Phone Number  Friendly Name
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PNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  +15558675310  (555) 867-5310

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C:\> docker run -it --rm `
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  -v $env:userprofile\.twilio-cli:/root/.twilio-cli `
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  twilio/twilio-cli twilio phone-numbers:list
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SID                                 Phone Number  Friendly Name
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PNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  +15558675310  (555) 867-5310
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There are multiple versions of the Twilio CLI Docker image that you can use. To run a specific version, append the desired tag to your docker run command.

There are two types of tags:

• latest - Sets the latest version of the Docker image, which we recommend. This is the default behavior of docker run, but you can choose to append it explicitly.

  Copy code block

  docker run -it --rm twilio/twilio-cli:latest bash

• <major.minor.patch> - Sets the container to run using a specific version of the Docker image.

  Copy code block

  docker run -it --rm twilio/twilio-cli:2.36.1 bash

The latest Docker image is only downloaded to your machine on the first execution of docker run. You need to manually pull the latest version of subsequent runs if you wish to use an updated image.

To download the latest Docker image and make it available locally, use:

docker pull twilio/twilio-cli

Now that you have the Twilio CLI Docker image installed and understand its use:

• Experiment with issuing other commands
• Learn about more special features to enhance your developer experience