Get started with Paddle in the CLI

This quickstart walks through installing the Paddle CLI, logging in to your sandbox account, and running your first commands in the terminal.

Before you begin

You'll need:

• A Paddle sandbox account.
• A sandbox API key with permission to read and write products.
• Homebrew if you're installing on macOS.

Install the CLI

brew install paddlehq/tap/paddle

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PaddleHQ/paddle-cli/main/install.sh | sh

Check that the CLI is installed:

paddle --version

For other ways to install the CLI, like building from source, see Install the Paddle CLI.

Log in to Paddle

Log in to your sandbox account with an API key:

paddle login --environment sandbox --api-key SANDBOX_API_KEY

Replace SANDBOX_API_KEY with your Paddle sandbox API key before running the command. Sandbox API keys contain _sdbx.

The CLI uses your live account by default, so include --environment sandbox. Without it, the CLI checks your sandbox key against your live account, and login fails. After you log in, the CLI keeps using your sandbox account until you switch.

To log in to your live account instead, run:

paddle login --environment production --api-key LIVE_API_KEY

You can also log in to your live account with OAuth. The CLI opens Paddle in your browser, where you log in and approve access. To learn more, see Log in with OAuth.

You can always check which account you're connected to:

paddle whoami

Run your first command

Start by listing the products that exist in your sandbox account:

paddle products list

The terminal displays the result in a table. If you don't have any products yet, the CLI shows No results. Create a product in the Paddle dashboard, or use the CLI, passing a request body as JSON:

paddle products create --json '{"name": "AeroEdit Student", "tax_category": "standard"}'

If successful, Paddle returns the details of the product, including its id. Use the ID to view the product:

paddle products get PRODUCT_ID

Replace PRODUCT_ID with the id you received from paddle products create. Product IDs start with pro_.

Find more commands

Use --help to see every command in the Paddle CLI:

paddle --help

To check commands for a specific resource, add --help after the resource name:

paddle products --help

You can also check all flags and request body fields for a resource command:

paddle products create --help

Commands for each resource match the Paddle API. paddle products create sends the same request as create a product, so you can use the API reference to see every field.

Use with an AI agent

AI coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Gemini CLI can run the Paddle CLI for you using the account you're logged in to.

Ask your agent to use the Paddle CLI in your prompt, or add an instruction to your project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md file so it uses the CLI every time.

Commands that delete or cancel a resource only run if the agent adds --confirm with the resource's Paddle ID to explicitly confirm the operation.

Next steps

• See Create products and prices to add prices to your product.
• Browse the API reference to see every operation you can run with the CLI.
• Get more details on logging in, settings, and every CLI command and flag in the Paddle CLI overview.