# Linode CLI
> Manage Linode (Akamai) cloud infrastructure from the terminal

## Summary
Official Linode (Akamai) CLI for managing cloud instances, Kubernetes clusters, volumes, databases, NodeBalancers, and all Linode services from the terminal.

## Capabilities
- Create and manage Linode instances (virtual machines)
- Manage Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) clusters
- Provision volumes, databases, and object storage
- Configure NodeBalancers for load balancing
- Manage DNS domains and records
- Output in JSON, table, or text format

## When to Use
- Managing Linode/Akamai cloud resources from the command line
- Scripting infrastructure provisioning on Linode
- Need quick access to Linode API without writing HTTP requests
- Automating Linode operations in CI/CD pipelines

## When NOT to Use
- Not using Linode as your cloud provider
- Need infrastructure as code with state tracking (use Pulumi or Terraform)
- Managing multi-cloud deployments

## Key Flags
- `linodes create`: Create a new Linode instance
- `linodes list`: List all Linode instances
- `lke cluster-create`: Create a Kubernetes cluster
- `volumes create`: Create a block storage volume
- `--json`: Output results in JSON format
- `--text`: Output results as tab-delimited text

## Usage Patterns
### Create a Linode instance
```
linode-cli linodes create --type g6-nanode-1 --region us-east --image linode/ubuntu24.04 --root_pass $(openssl rand -base64 24)
```
Creates a Nanode instance with Ubuntu 24.04 in US East

### List all instances as JSON
```
linode-cli linodes list --json --pretty
```
Shows all Linodes in formatted JSON output

### Create a Kubernetes cluster
```
linode-cli lke cluster-create --label my-cluster --region us-east --k8s_version 1.29
```
Creates an LKE cluster in the specified region

## Input / Output
- **stdin**: Accepts interactive input during initial configuration
- **stdout**: Resource listings, operation results in table/JSON/text format
- **stderr**: Error messages and API errors

## Installation
- **pip**: `pip install linode-cli`

## Related Tools
- [hcloud](/tools/hcloud) (alternative): Hetzner Cloud CLI manages a competing affordable cloud provider
- [vultr-cli](/tools/vultr-cli) (alternative): Vultr CLI manages a competing cloud provider
- [kubectl](/tools/kubectl) (complementary): kubectl manages workloads on LKE clusters provisioned by Linode CLI

---
Source: https://littlescripts.sh/tools/linode-cli
