A quick, step-by-step guide to install the Hostinger CLI, connect it to your account, and run the most common VPS commands.<\/p>
<\/code><\/h2>macOS and Linux (recommended) install with Homebrew:<\/p>
brew install hostinger\/tap\/hostinger<\/pre>This also installs bash, zsh, and fish shell completions automatically. Upgrade later with:<\/p>
\n\nbrew upgrade hostinger<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Windows, or without Homebrew:<\/strong> download the archive for your platform from the releases page<\/a> and put the hostinger<\/code> binary on your PATH<\/code>. Each archive also bundles the shell completion files.<\/p>Verify the installation:<\/h3>\n\n\nhostinger version<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIf this returns a version number, the CLI is installed correctly.<\/p>\n<\/div>
Step 2 – Authenticate with your API token<\/b><\/h2>
You have two ways to authenticate, depending on how you plan to use the CLI.<\/p>
Option A – Browser sign-in (default, no token needed)<\/h3>
Just run any command. If you’re not authenticated yet, the CLI opens a browser window for you to sign in, then caches and automatically refreshes your credentials. This is the fastest way to get started interactively.<\/p>
Option B – API token (recommended for CI\/CD and scripts)<\/h3>\n- Generate a token in Hostinger dashboard → API<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Provide it to the CLI either through an environment variable or a config file:<\/li>\n<\/ol>
Environment variable (current session only):<\/strong><\/p>\n\nexport HOSTINGER_API_TOKEN=<paste_your_token_here><\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Config file (persistent):<\/strong> create ~\/.hostinger.yaml<\/code> with:<\/p>\n\napi_token: <your API token><\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Any command will automatically pick up the token from either source.<\/p>
Note:<\/strong> a configured token always takes precedence over browser sign-in. If commands suddenly fail to authorize after working before, check for a stale api_token<\/code> in your config file or environment first.<\/p>Step 3 – Command structure<\/b><\/h2>
Commands follow a three-level pattern:<\/p>
\n\nhostinger <group> <subgroup> <verb> [args] [flags]<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Examples:<\/p>
\n\nhostinger vps virtual-machines list\r\nhostinger vps virtual-machines get <vm_id>\r\nhostinger vps vm start <vm_id> # \"vm\" is a short alias for \"virtual-machines\"\r\nhostinger vps vm stop <vm_id>\r\nhostinger dns records list example.com\r\nhostinger billing catalog list<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Add --help<\/code> at any level to see what a group or subgroup contains, e.g.:<\/p>\n\nhostinger vps --help\r\nhostinger vps firewall --help<\/code><\/pre>\nStep 4 – Output formats<\/h2>\n
Results print as a table by default. Use --format<\/code> to change that:<\/p>\n\n\nhostinger vps virtual-machines list --format json | jq\r\nhostinger vps virtual-machines list --format tree<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\ntable<\/code> – human-readable (default)<\/li>\njson<\/code> – for piping into scripts, dashboards, or jq<\/code><\/li>\ntree<\/code> – nested data as a tree, useful for exploring a response’s structure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nTip:<\/strong> The CLI mirrors the Hostinger API endpoints, so everything you can do at developers.hostinger.com<\/a> is possible via hostinger<\/code>.<\/p>\nShell completion<\/h2>\n
Tab-completion is available for bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell. Homebrew installs the bash\/zsh\/fish completions automatically. For a manual install, see AUTOCOMPLETE.md<\/a> in the CLI repository.<\/p>\nOfficial documentation<\/h2>\n\n- CLI guide – https:\/\/docs.hostinger.com\/api-reference\/cli<\/a><\/li>\n
- Full command reference (every command, generated from the API spec) – https:\/\/github.com\/hostinger\/api-cli\/blob\/main\/docs\/hostinger.md<\/a><\/li>\n
- Scripting with the CLI (exit codes, passing JSON to flags) – https:\/\/docs.hostinger.com\/api-reference\/cli-scripting<\/a><\/li>\n
- API reference – https:\/\/developers.hostinger.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
You’re all set!<\/h2>
You can now automate routine VPS tasks, integrate Hostinger operations into CI\/CD pipelines, or simply manage servers faster from your terminal. Happy scripting! 🎉<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Quick guide on how to install and use Hostinger API CLI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"include_on_kodee":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[295],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-api"],"hreflangs":[{"locale":"en-US","link":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/11679133-how-to-use-hostinger-api-cli","default":1}],"include_on_kodee":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16842,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/16842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hostinger.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}