The Heroku CLI
Last updated 24 October 2019
Table of Contents
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
The Heroku CLI requires Git, the popular version control system. If you don’t already have Git installed, complete the following before installing the CLI:
Also available via Homebrew:
$ brew tap heroku/brew && brew install heroku
Download the appropriate installer for your Windows installation:
Run the following from your terminal:
$ sudo snap install --classic heroku
Currently, the macOS installer on Catalina displays an “unknown author” warning. We are working to address this.
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.
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.
It’s strongly recommended to use one of the other installation methods if possible.
This installation method does not autoupdate and requires you to use your system’s version of Node.js, which may be older than the version Heroku develops the CLI against. Heroku uses very current releases of Node.js and does not back-support older versions.
If you use any of the other installation methods the proper version of Node.js is already included, and it doesn’t conflict with any other version on your system.
Also, this method won’t use the yarn lockfile for dependencies like the others do (even if you install with yarn). This may cause issues if the CLI’s dependencies become incompatible in minor or patch releases.
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
Linux
Windows
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
.
Not all methods of installation support heroku update
.
- If you installed the CLI with
apt
, you need to usesudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade heroku
instead. - If you installed the CLI with
npm
oryarn
, you need to usenpm upgrade -g heroku
oryarn global upgrade heroku
instead.
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:
Environment Variable | Description |
---|---|
HEROKU_DEBUG=1 |
Shows debugging information mostly related to Heroku API interactions |
HEROKU_DEBUG_HEADERS=1 |
Alongside HEROKU_DEBUG=1 , shows HTTP headers |
DEBUG=* |
Shows very verbose debugging information |
You can also check the CLI’s error logfile, which is stored at one of the following locations depending on your operating system:
OS | Location |
---|---|
macOS | ~/Library/Caches/heroku/error.log |
Windows | %LOCALAPPDATA%\heroku\error.log |
Linux/Other |
~/.cache/heroku/error.log (or XDG_CACHE_HOME if set) |
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
(orXDG_DATA_HOME
if set) - Either
~/Library/Caches/heroku
on macOS, or~/.cache/heroku
on Linux/Other (orXDG_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
Note that this also deletes all CLI plugins.
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:
- Click
Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features
. - Select
Heroku CLI
, and then clickUninstall
. (Note that the uninstaller is unsigned)
The Windows uninstaller is not automatically updated alongside the CLI. If it’s been a while since you first installed the CLI and you’re attempting to uninstall it to fix an issue, you might first need to manually install the latest version of the CLI to obtain an up-to-date uninstaller.
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