The Heroku CLI

Last updated 15 June 2020

The Heroku Command Line Interface (CLI) makes it easy to create and manage your Heroku apps directly from the terminal. It’s an essential part of using Heroku.

Download and install

macOS

$ brew tap heroku/brew && brew install heroku

Windows

Download the appropriate installer for your Windows installation:

64-bit installer

32-bit installer

Ubuntu 16+

Run the following from your terminal:

$ sudo snap install --classic heroku

_{Snap is available on other Linux OS’s as well.}

Other installation methods

Standalone installation

The standalone install is a simple tarball with a binary that is useful in scripted environments or where there is restricted access (non-sudo). It contains its own node.js binary and will autoupdate like the above install methods. We encourage this method inside docker containers.

To quickly setup into /usr/local/lib/heroku and /usr/local/bin/heroku, run this script (script requires sudo and not Windows compatible):

$ curl https://cli-assets.heroku.com/install.sh | sh

Otherwise, download one of the tarballs below and extract it yourself.

Tarballs

These are available in gz or xz compression. xz is much smaller but gz is more compatible.

• macOS
• Linux (x64)
• Linux (arm)
• Windows (x64)
• Windows (x86)

Ubuntu / Debian apt-get

$ curl https://cli-assets.heroku.com/install-ubuntu.sh | sh

This version does not autoupdate and must be updated manually via apt-get. Use the snap or standalone installation for an autoupdating version of the CLI.

Arch Linux

This package is community maintained and not by Heroku.

$ yay -S heroku-cli

npm

The CLI is built with Node.js and is installable via npm. This is a manual install method that can be used in environments where autoupdating is not ideal or where Heroku does not offer a prebuilt Node.js binary.

This installation method is required for users on ARM and BSD. You must have node and npm installed already.

$ npm install -g heroku

Verifying your installation

To verify your CLI installation, use the heroku --version command:

$ heroku --version
heroku/7.0.0 (darwin-x64) node-v8.0.0

You should see heroku/x.y.z in the output. If you don’t, but you have installed the Heroku CLI, it’s possible you have an old heroku gem on your system. Uninstall it with these instructions.

Getting started

After you install the CLI, run the heroku login command. You’ll be prompted to enter any key to go to your web browser to complete login. The CLI will then log you in automatically.

$ heroku login
heroku: Press any key to open up the browser to login or q to exit
 ›   Warning: If browser does not open, visit
 ›   https://cli-auth.heroku.com/auth/browser/***
heroku: Waiting for login...
Logging in... done
Logged in as me@example.com

If you’d prefer to stay in the CLI to enter your credentials, you may run heroku login -i

$ heroku login -i
heroku: Enter your login credentials
Email: me@example.com
Password: ***************
Two-factor code: ********
Logged in as me@heroku.com

The CLI saves your email address and an API token to ~/.netrc for future use. For more information, see Heroku CLI Authentication.

Now you’re ready to create your first Heroku app:

$ cd ~/myapp
$ heroku create
Creating app... done, ⬢ sleepy-meadow-81798
https://sleepy-meadow-81798.herokuapp.com/ | https://git.heroku.com/sleepy-meadow-81798.git

Check out your preferred language’s getting started guide for a comprehensive introduction to deploying your first app.

Staying up to date

The Heroku CLI keeps itself and its plugins (except linked plugins) up to date automatically, unless you installed the Debian/Ubuntu package or used npm install.

When you run a heroku command, a background process checks for the latest available version of the CLI. If a new version is found, it’s downloaded and stored in ~/.local/share/heroku/client. This background check happens at most once every 4 hours.

The heroku binary checks for an up-to-date client in ~/.local/share/heroku/client before using the originally installed client.

Latest release SHAs

Darwin

• x64

Linux

• arm
• x64

Windows

• x64
• x86

Useful CLI plugins

CLI plugins allow you to extend your CLI installation. Install a CLI plugin with heroku plugins:install someplugin. See Using CLI Plugins for more information on plugin management.

Here are some useful plugins you might want to try:

• heroku-builds — create builds from tarballs
• heroku-repo — purge build cache, reset repo, and other commands to manipulate the Heroku git repository
• api — make ad-hoc API requests (such as heroku api GET /account)
• heroku-pg-extras — Add extra heroku pg:* commands
• heroku-slugs — Downloads app slugs
• heroku-kafka — Manage Heroku Kafka
• heroku-papertrail — Display, tail, and search for logs with Papertrail

CLI architecture

The Heroku CLI is built with the Open CLI Framework (oclif), developed within Heroku / Salesforce. oclif is available as a framework for any developer to build a large or a small CLI. The framework includes a CLI generator, automated documentation creation, and testing infrastructure.

The code for the Heroku CLI is also open source. It does not require Node.js or any other dependencies to run. Unless you install the Debian/Ubuntu package or use npm install, the CLI contains its own Node.js binary that does not conflict with other applications.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having issues with the CLI, first ensure that you’re using the latest version. If you’re not, try updating with heroku update.

If the CLI fails to update, try uninstalling it with the instructions below, then reinstalling it. Ensure that you don’t have the legacy Heroku Toolbelt or Heroku Ruby gem installed by using which heroku or where heroku (on Windows) to confirm what the heroku command points to. You might need to modify your PATH to include /usr/local/bin/heroku (for most installations).

If you’re still encountering an issue, you can set the following debugging environment variables to help diagnose it:

You can also check the CLI’s error logfile, which is stored at one of the following locations depending on your operating system:

If you continue to have problems and the CLI is up to date, or if updating fails for other reasons, you can reset the CLI by deleting its user directories. These directories are replaced automatically and you will not be logged out, but you will lose any installed plugins.

First, run heroku plugins to list your installed plugins so you can make sure to reinstall them.

Then, delete the following directories:

Windows:

• %LOCALAPPDATA%\heroku

macOS/Linux/Other:

• ~/.local/share/heroku (or XDG_DATA_HOME if set)
• Either ~/Library/Caches/heroku on macOS, or ~/.cache/heroku on Linux/Other (or XDG_CACHE_HOME if set)

Login issues

If you are experiencing issues with logging in, try moving your .netrc file. This is where the CLI stores credentials:

$ mv ~/.netrc ~/.netrc.backup
$ heroku login

On Windows, the file is named _netrc.

Homebrew-specific issues

If you get legacy warnings even though you installed the latest homebrew version of heroku, this is happening because the binary heroku command in your PATH environment variable is not pointing to the version that brew installed.

First, run which heroku to see what binary heroku is pointing to. If it is not /usr/local/bin/heroku, you need to either delete the binary it is pointing to, or make /usr/local/bin/ higher up in your PATH environment variable by modifying your ~/.bashrc file or equivalent.

Next, run brew link --overwrite heroku to make sure that /usr/local/bin/heroku is pointing to the new CLI. If you continue to have trouble, run brew doctor which should point out any issues with your system.

Uninstalling the Heroku CLI

macOS

On macOS, you can uninstall the CLI by typing:

$ rm -rf /usr/local/heroku /usr/local/lib/heroku /usr/local/bin/heroku ~/.local/share/heroku ~/Library/Caches/heroku

Homebrew

If you installed the Heroku CLI using Homebrew, you can uninstall the CLI by typing:

$ brew uninstall heroku
$ rm -rf ~/.local/share/heroku ~/Library/Caches/heroku

Linux

Standalone installs

For standalone installs, you can uninstall the CLI by typing:

$ rm /usr/local/bin/heroku
$ rm -rf /usr/local/lib/heroku /usr/local/heroku
$ rm -rf ~/.local/share/heroku ~/.cache/heroku

Debian and Ubuntu installs

For Debian/Ubuntu, you can uninstall the CLI by typing:

$ sudo apt-get remove heroku heroku-toolbelt
$ sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/heroku.list

If you have $XDG_DATA_HOME, and/or $XDG_CACHE_HOME it will use those variables instead of ~/.local/share, and ~/.cache.

You can remove the release key by running these commands:

$ sudo apt-key list
$ sudo apt-key del KEYFROMABOVE

Windows

On Windows, to uninstall the Heroku CLI:

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
2. Select Heroku CLI, and then click Uninstall. (Note that the uninstaller is unsigned)

If this is unsuccessful, manually delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\heroku along with the directory in Program Files.

Uninstalling the legacy heroku gem

To find out where the executable is located, run which.

$ which heroku
/usr/local/heroku/bin/heroku

The path to the heroku command should not be a Ruby gem directory.

If it is, uninstall it and any other heroku gems:

$ gem uninstall heroku --all