Global flags and output formats

Learn how to use global flags to control scope, output format, pagination, and behavior across all Harness CLI commands.

The Harness CLI provides a set of flags that work consistently across commands. Use these flags to control scope, output formatting, pagination, and command behavior. This page serves as a reference for the shared flags available throughout the CLI.

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What you will learn in this topic

By the end of this page, you will know how to:

• Control the account, organization, and project scope of commands.

• Switch between supported output formats.

• Customize which fields appear in command output.

• Paginate through large result sets or retrieve all results.

• Configure the CLI using environment variables.

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Before you begin

• Harness CLI installed and authenticated: For setup steps, see Install and upgrade and Authenticate.

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Scope flags

Use scope flags to control which account, organization, and project a command operates against. The CLI resolves scope in the following order: command-line flags, profile defaults, and then environment variables.

Flag	Description
--profile <name>	Use a specific authentication profile.
--org <id>	Override the organization defined in the active profile.
--project <id>	Override the project defined in the active profile.
--level account|org|project	Specify the scope for resources that support multiple levels.

harness list secret --level account
harness list pipeline --org platform --project production
harness list connector --level org --org platform --profile prod

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Output formats for list commands

By default, list commands display results in a table. Use --format to produce machine-readable output or export data for external tools.

Format	Use case	Notes
table	Interactive terminal use	Default format for list commands
json	Integration with tools that consume JSON	Returns a formatted JSON array
jsonl	Streaming and line-based processing	Outputs one JSON object per line
csv	Spreadsheet and reporting tools	Includes a header row
tsv	Tab-delimited processing	Includes a header row
markdown	Documentation, pull requests, and wikis	Renders output as a Markdown table

harness list pipeline --format json
harness list pipeline --format jsonl | jq -r '.id'
harness list pipeline --format csv > pipelines.csv
harness list pipeline --json

Customize columns

Use --columns to control which columns appear in list output. Run --list-columns to view the available columns for a resource.

harness list pipeline --list-columns
harness list pipeline --columns "name,id,project,lastRun"
harness list pipeline --columns "+lastRun"
harness list pipeline --columns "Name:it.name"

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Output formats for get, create, and update commands

Commands that operate on a single resource default to human-readable text output. Use the following flags to change the format or save output to a file.

Flag	Description
--format text|json	Output format. Default is text.
--json	Shorthand for --format json.
--list-fields	Display available field identifiers and exit.
--raw	Return the complete API response envelope (JSON output only).
-o, --out <path>	Write output to a file instead of standard output.

harness get pipeline my-pipeline --format json
harness get pipeline my-pipeline --raw --format json
harness get pipeline my-pipeline -o pipeline.yaml

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Pagination flags

List commands return paginated results by default. Use these flags to control how many records are returned.

Flag	Description
--all	Retrieve all available results.
--limit <N>	Return up to N results.
--offset <N>	Skip the first N results.
--count	Return the total number of results without retrieving records.

These options are mutually exclusive. Use either --all, --limit and --offset, or --count.

harness list pipeline --count
harness list pipeline --all --format jsonl
harness list pipeline --limit 25 --offset 50

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Related articles

• Platform: Review detailed examples of platform resource operations.

• Troubleshooting: Resolve common CLI errors.