CLI overview

formfeed is the command line tool for working with templates as code and for everything you would otherwise click through in the app.

npx formfeed --help

It needs Node.js 22 or later. Installation covers installing it globally and logging in.

What it does

Task	Commands	Needs the API
Log in and check the key	login, logout, whoami	yes
Read and write the user config	config list, config get, config set	no
Delete a workspace	workspaces delete	yes
Start a project, sync templates	init, templates list, templates pull, templates diff, templates push	yes
Preview with hot reload	dev	no (only the true render uses it)
Check and test	validate, test	no
Write the XML of an e-invoice from a data set	einvoice	no
Render a real PDF or image, or fill a Word or PowerPoint template	render	yes (free with a test key; the PDF of a Word or PowerPoint template needs the Starter plan)
Convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other office files to PDF	pdf convert	yes (Starter plan and above)
Sync the brand kit and shared partials	brand pull, partials list, partials pull, partials push	yes
Sync the file library	files list, files push, files pull, files delete	yes
Inspect and clean up renders	renders list, renders get, renders delete-outputs	yes
Reproduce a production render as a data set or test	renders pull	yes
Develop webhooks locally	listen, webhooks resend, trigger	yes
Preview changed templates in a pull request	ci preview	yes
Generate types for template data	types	only with --remote or --channel, or outside a project
Move release channels, promote and roll back	channels list, channels set, channels promote, channels rollback, channels delete	yes
Import from other services	import apitemplate, import pdfmonkey, import jsreport	no (PDFMonkey, and apitemplate.io with --key, are read through their own APIs)

The offline commands run the same template engine as the Formfeed servers, so what validate accepts renders in production. That includes Word and PowerPoint templates: the CLI fills them on your machine, and only their conversion to PDF goes through the API.

The commands that need the API use the key from --api-key, FORMFEED_API_KEY or the stored login, in that order. The key alone decides which workspace they act on; see Configuration.

The five commands you will use most

formfeed dev invoice                          # live preview on http://localhost:4400
formfeed validate                             # check every template against its default data set
formfeed test                                 # render every data set and compare with the approved snapshots
formfeed render invoice --out invoice.pdf     # the PDF the API makes from your local files
formfeed templates push --publish             # ship it

Scripting

Every command accepts --json: it prints one JSON document to stdout instead of the text lines. The CLI never asks a question, so it runs unattended as it is. --ci only keeps formfeed login from opening a browser; a set CI environment variable does the same and also turns off the progress line that long commands draw on a terminal. Without --json, errors go to stderr as error: …. Exit codes are stable and documented in Exit codes:

formfeed renders list --status failed --since 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z --all --json | jq -r '.data[].id'

Next

• Templates as code: the whole workflow, step by step.
• Commands: every command and flag.
• Configuration: formfeed.json, environment variables, precedence.
• CI usage: GitHub Actions and GitLab CI.