---
title: Command line tools
id: cli
toplevel: true
---

This document covers the CLI tools. Note: for @jbrowse/img static export tool,
see https://www.npmjs.com/package/@jbrowse/img

Note: the @jbrowse/cli may not do all types of operations, some use cases may
best be handled by creating your own tools to manipulate a config.json by hand
or by using a script file.

A simple script that does not use @jbrowse/cli at all may just look like this

``
const config = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('config.json', 'utf8'))
// do something with config.tracks, config.assemblies, etc.
fs.writeFileSync('config.json', JSON.stringify(config, null, 2))
`

Installation

The command line tools can be installed globally using npm as follows

`sh-session
$ npm install -g @jbrowse/cli
`

A CLI tool called jbrowse should then be available in the path. You can test
your installation with

`sh-session
$ jbrowse --version
`

It is also possible to do one-off executions using npx, e.g.

`sh-session
npx @jbrowse/cli create myfolder
`

It is likely preferable in most cases to install the tools globally with
npm install @jbrowse/cli -g however

`

JBrowse CLI

USAGE
$ jbrowse [options]

COMMANDS
create Downloads and installs the latest JBrowse 2 release
add-assembly Add an assembly to a JBrowse 2 configuration
add-track Add a track to a JBrowse 2 configuration
text-index Make a text-indexing file for any given track(s)
admin-server Start up a small admin server for JBrowse configuration
upgrade Upgrades JBrowse 2 to latest version
make-pif Creates pairwise indexed PAF (PIF), with bgzip and tabix
sort-gff Helper utility to sort GFF files for tabix
sort-bed Helper utility to sort BED files for tabix
add-connection Add a connection to a JBrowse 2 configuration
add-track-json Add a track configuration directly from a JSON hunk
remove-track Remove a track configuration from a JBrowse 2 configuration
set-default-session Set a default session with views and tracks

OPTIONS
-h, --help Show help
-v, --version Show version

Use "jbrowse --help" for more information about a command.

`




jbrowse create

`
Downloads and installs the latest JBrowse 2 release

Usage: jbrowse create [localPath] [options]

Options:
-h, --help Show help

-f, --force Overwrites existing JBrowse 2 installation if
present in path

-l, --listVersions Lists out all versions of JBrowse 2

--branch Download a development build from a named git
branch

--nightly Download the latest development build from the main
branch

-u, --url A direct URL to a JBrowse 2 release

-t, --tag Version of JBrowse 2 to install. Format is v1.0.0.
Defaults to latest

Download latest release from github, and put in specific path

$ jbrowse create /path/to/new/installation

Download latest release from github and force overwrite existing contents at path

$ jbrowse create /path/to/new/installation --force

Download latest release from a specific URL

$ jbrowse create /path/to/new/installation --url url.com/directjbrowselink.zip

Download a specific tag from github

$ jbrowse create /path/to/new/installation --tag v1.0.0

List available versions

$ jbrowse create --listVersions
`

jbrowse add-assembly

`
Add an assembly to a JBrowse 2 configuration

Usage: jbrowse add-assembly [options]

Options:
-t, --type type of sequence, by default inferred from sequence
file

indexedFasta - An index FASTA (e.g. .fa or .fasta)
file; can optionally specify --faiLocation

bgzipFasta - A block-gzipped and indexed FASTA
(e.g. .fa.gz or .fasta.gz) file; can optionally
specify --faiLocation and/or --gziLocation

twoBit - A twoBit (e.g. .2bit) file

chromSizes - A chromosome sizes (e.g. .chrom.sizes)
file

custom - Either a JSON file location or inline JSON
that defines a custom sequence adapter; must
provide --name if using inline JSON [choices:
indexedFasta, bgzipFasta, twoBit, chromSizes,
custom]

-n, --name Name of the assembly; if not specified, will be
guessed using the sequence file name

-a, --alias An alias for the assembly name (e.g. "hg38" if the
name of the assembly is "GRCh38"); can be specified
multiple times

--displayName The display name to specify for the assembly, e.g.
"Homo sapiens (hg38)" while the name can be a
shorter identifier like "hg38"

--faiLocation [default: .fai] FASTA index file or
URL

--gziLocation [default: .gzi] FASTA gzip index
file or URL

--refNameAliases Reference sequence name aliases file or URL;
assumed to be a tab-separated aliases file unless
--refNameAliasesType is specified

--refNameAliasesType Type of aliases defined by --refNameAliases; if
"custom", --refNameAliases is either a JSON file
location or inline JSON that defines a custom
sequence adapter [choices: aliases, custom]

--refNameColors A comma-separated list of color strings for the
reference sequence names; will cycle through colors
if there are fewer colors than sequences

--target path to config file in JB2 installation directory
to write out to. Creates ./config.json if
nonexistent

--out synonym for target

-h, --help Display help for command

-l, --load Required flag when using a local file. Choose how
to manage the data directory. Copy, symlink, or
move the data directory to the JBrowse directory.
Or use inPlace to modify the config without doing
any file operations [choices: copy, symlink, move,
inPlace]

--skipCheck Don't check whether or not the sequence file or URL
exists or if you are in a JBrowse directory

--overwrite Overwrite existing assembly if one with the same
name exists

-f, --force Equivalent to --skipCheck --overwrite

add assembly to installation in current directory. assumes .fai file also exists, and copies GRCh38.fa and GRCh38.fa.fai to current directory

$ jbrowse add-assembly GRCh38.fa --load copy

add assembly to a specific jb2 installation path using --out, and copies the .fa and .fa.fai file to /path/to/jb2

$ jbrowse add-assembly GRCh38.fa --out /path/to/jb2/ --load copy

force indexedFasta for add-assembly without relying on file extension

$ jbrowse add-assembly GRCh38.xyz --type indexedFasta --load copy

add displayName for an assembly

$ jbrowse add-assembly myFile.fa.gz --name hg38 --displayName "Homo sapiens (hg38)"

use chrom.sizes file for assembly instead of a fasta file

$ jbrowse add-assembly GRCh38.chrom.sizes --load inPlace

add assembly from preconfigured json file, expert option

$ jbrowse add-assembly GRCh38.config.json --load copy

add assembly from a 2bit file, also note pointing direct to a URL so no --load flag needed

$ jbrowse add-assembly https://example.com/data/sample.2bit

add a bgzip indexed fasta inferred by fa.gz extension. assumes .fa.gz.gzi and .fa.gz.fai files also exists

$ jbrowse add-assembly myfile.fa.gz --load copy
`

jbrowse add-track

`
Add a track to a JBrowse 2 configuration

Usage: jbrowse add-track [options]

Options:
-h, --help

-t, --trackType Type of track, by default inferred from track file

-n, --name Name of the track. Will be defaulted to the trackId
if none specified

--indexFile Optional index file for the track

-d, --description Optional description of the track

-a, --assemblyNames Assembly name or names for track as comma separated
string

--category Optional comma separated string of categories to
group tracks

--config Any extra config settings to add to a track

--target Path to config file in JB2 installation to write
out to

--out Synonym for target

--subDir When using --load a file, output to a subdirectory
of the target dir

--trackId trackId for the track, by default inferred from
filename

-l, --load How to manage the track (copy, symlink, move,
inPlace)

--skipCheck Skip check for whether file or URL exists

--overwrite Overwrites existing track if it shares the same
trackId

-f, --force Equivalent to --skipCheck --overwrite

--protocol Force protocol to a specific value

--bed1 Used only for mcscan anchors/simpleAnchors types

--bed2 Used only for mcscan anchors/simpleAnchors types

copy /path/to/my.bam and /path/to/my.bam.bai to current directory and adds track to config.json

$ jbrowse add-track /path/to/my.bam --load copy

copy my.bam and my.bam.bai to /path/to/jb2/bam and adds track entry to /path/to/jb2/bam/config.json

$ jbrowse add-track my.bam --load copy --out /path/to/jb2 --subDir bam

same as above, but specify path to bai file. needed for if the bai file does not have the extension .bam.bai

$ jbrowse add-track my.bam --indexFile my.bai --load copy

creates symlink for /path/to/my.bam and adds track to config.json

$ jbrowse add-track /path/to/my.bam --load symlink

add track from URL to config.json, no --load flag needed

$ jbrowse add-track https://mywebsite.com/my.bam

--load inPlace adds a track without doing file operations

$ jbrowse add-track /url/relative/path.bam --load inPlace
`

jbrowse text-index

`
Make a text-indexing file for any given track(s).

Usage: jbrowse text-index [options]

Options:
-h, --help Show CLI help

--tracks Specific tracks to index, formatted as comma
separated trackIds. If unspecified, indexes all
available tracks

--excludeTracks Specific tracks to exclude from indexing, formatted
as comma separated trackIds

--target Path to config file in JB2 installation directory
to read from.

--out Synonym for target

--attributes Comma separated list of attributes to index
[default: Name,ID]

-a, --assemblies Specify the assembl(ies) to create an index for. If
unspecified, creates an index for each assembly in
the config

--force Overwrite previously existing indexes [default:
false]

-q, --quiet Hide the progress bars [default: false]

--perTrack If set, creates an index per track [default: false]

--exclude Adds gene type to list of excluded types [default:
CDS,exon]

--prefixSize Specify the prefix size for the ixx index. We
attempt to automatically calculate this, but you
can manually specify this too. If many genes have
similar gene IDs e.g. Z000000001, Z000000002 the
prefix size should be larger so that they get split
into different bins

--file File or files to index (can be used to create trix
indexes for embedded component use cases not using
a config.json for example)

--fileId Set the trackId used for the indexes generated with
the --file argument

--dryrun Just print out tracks that will be indexed by the
process, without doing any indexing

indexes all tracks that it can find in the current directory's config.json

$ jbrowse text-index

indexes specific trackIds that it can find in the current directory's config.json

$ jbrowse text-index --tracks=track1,track2,track3

indexes all tracks except specific trackIds

$ jbrowse text-index --exclude-tracks=track1,track2,track3

indexes all tracks in a directory's config.json or in a specific config file

$ jbrowse text-index --out /path/to/jb2/

indexes only a specific assembly, and overwrite what was previously there using force (which is needed if a previous index already existed)

$ jbrowse text-index -a hg19 --force

create index for some files for use in @jbrowse/react-linear-genome-view2 or similar

$ jbrowse text-index --file myfile.gff3.gz --file myfile.vcfgz --out indexes
`

jbrowse admin-server

`
Start up a small admin server for JBrowse configuration

Usage: jbrowse admin-server [options]

Options:
-h, --help

-p, --port Specified port to start the server on (default:
9090)

--root Path to the root of the JB2 installation

--bodySizeLimit Size limit of the update message (default: 25mb)

$ jbrowse admin-server
$ jbrowse admin-server -p 8888
`




jbrowse upgrade

`
Upgrades JBrowse 2 to latest version

Usage: jbrowse upgrade [localPath] [options]

Options:
-h, --help Display help for command

-l, --listVersions Lists out all versions of JBrowse 2

-t, --tag Version of JBrowse 2 to install. Format is v1.0.0.
Defaults to latest

--branch Download a development build from a named git
branch

--nightly Download the latest development build from the main
branch

--clean Removes old js,map,and LICENSE files in the
installation

-u, --url A direct URL to a JBrowse 2 release

Upgrades current directory to latest jbrowse release

$ jbrowse upgrade

Upgrade jbrowse instance at a specific filesystem path

$ jbrowse upgrade /path/to/jbrowse2/installation

Upgrade to a specific tag

$ jbrowse upgrade /path/to/jbrowse2/installation --tag v1.0.0

List versions available on github

$ jbrowse upgrade --listVersions

Upgrade from a specific URL

$ jbrowse upgrade --url https://sample.com/jbrowse2.zip

Get nightly release from main branch

$ jbrowse upgrade --nightly
`

jbrowse make-pif

`
creates pairwise indexed PAF (PIF), with bgzip and tabix

Usage: jbrowse make-pif [options]

Options:
-h, --help

--out Where to write the output file. will write
${file}.pif.gz and ${file}.pif.gz.tbi

--csi Create a CSI index for the PIF file instead of TBI

$ jbrowse make-pif input.paf # creates input.pif.gz in same directory

$ jbrowse make-pif input.paf --out output.pif.gz # specify output file, creates output.pif.gz.tbi also
`




jbrowse sort-gff

`
Helper utility to sort GFF files for tabix. Moves all lines starting with # to the top of the file, and sort by refname and start position using unix utilities sort and grep

Usage: jbrowse sort-gff [file] [options]

Options:
-h, --help

sort gff and pipe to bgzip

$ jbrowse sort-gff input.gff | bgzip > sorted.gff.gz
$ tabix sorted.gff.gz

sort gff from stdin

$ cat input.gff | jbrowse sort-gff | bgzip > sorted.gff.gz
`

jbrowse sort-bed

`
Helper utility to sort BED files for tabix. Moves all lines starting with # to the top of the file, and sort by refname and start position using unix utilities sort and grep

Usage: jbrowse sort-bed [file] [options]

Options:
-h, --help

sort bed and pipe to bgzip

$ jbrowse sort-bed input.bed | bgzip > sorted.bed.gz
$ tabix sorted.bed.gz

OR pipe data via stdin: cat file.bed | jbrowse sort-bed | bgzip > sorted.bed.gz

`

jbrowse add-connection

`
Add a connection to a JBrowse 2 configuration

Usage: jbrowse add-connection [options]

Options:
-h, --help

-t, --type Type of connection (e.g. JBrowse1Connection,
UCSCTrackHubConnection, custom)

-a, --assemblyNames For UCSC: optional comma separated list of assembly
names to filter. For JBrowse1: a single assembly
name

-c, --config Extra config settings to add to connection in JSON
object format

--connectionId Id for the connection that must be unique to
JBrowse

-n, --name Name of the connection. Defaults to connectionId if
not provided

--target Path to config file in JB2 installation directory
to write out to

--out Synonym for target

--skipCheck Don't check whether the data directory URL exists

--overwrite Overwrites any existing connections if same
connection id

-f, --force Equivalent to --skipCheck --overwrite

$ jbrowse add-connection http://mysite.com/jbrowse/data/ -a hg19
$ jbrowse add-connection http://mysite.com/jbrowse/custom_data_folder/ --type JBrowse1Connection -a hg38
$ jbrowse add-connection http://mysite.com/path/to/hub.txt
$ jbrowse add-connection http://mysite.com/path/to/custom_hub_name.txt --type UCSCTrackHubConnection
$ jbrowse add-connection http://mysite.com/path/to/custom --type custom --config '{"uri":{"url":"https://mysite.com/path/to/custom"}, "locationType": "UriLocation"}' -a hg19
$ jbrowse add-connection https://mysite.com/path/to/hub.txt --connectionId newId --name newName --target /path/to/jb2/installation/config.json
`




jbrowse add-track-json

`
Add a track configuration directly from a JSON hunk to the JBrowse 2 configuration

Usage: jbrowse add-track-json [options]

Options:
-h, --help

-u, --update Update the contents of an existing track, matched
based on trackId

--target Path to config file in JB2 installation directory
to write out to

--out Synonym for target

$ jbrowse add-track-json track.json
$ jbrowse add-track-json track.json --update
`




jbrowse remove-track

`
Remove a track configuration from a JBrowse 2 configuration. Be aware that this can cause crashes in saved sessions that refer to this track!

Usage: jbrowse remove-track [options]

Options:
-h, --help

--target Path to config file in JB2 installation directory
to write out to

--out Synonym for target

$ jbrowse remove-track trackId
`




jbrowse set-default-session

`
Set a default session with views and tracks

Usage: jbrowse add-track [options]

Options:
-s, --session set path to a file containing session in json
format (required, unless using
delete/currentSession flags)

-n, --name Give a name for the default session [default: New
Default Session]

-c, --currentSession List out the current default session

--target path to config file in JB2 installation directory
to write out to

--out synonym for target

--delete Delete any existing default session.

-h, --help Show help

set default session for the config.json in your current directory

$ jbrowse set-default-session --session /path/to/default/session.json

make session.json the defaultSession on the specified target config.json file

$ jbrowse set-default-session --target /path/to/jb2/installation/config.json --session session.json

print current default session

$ jbrowse set-default-session --currentSession # Prints out current default session
``