What is Microsoft Power Platform CLI?

Article
10/11/2022
3 minutes to read

Microsoft Power Platform CLI is a simple, one-stop developer CLI that empowers developers and ISVs to perform various operations in Microsoft Power Platform related to environment lifecycle, authentication, and work with Microsoft Dataverse environments, solution packages, portals, code components, and more.

Microsoft Power Platform CLI is available for use in the GCC and GCC High (US Sovereign cloud) regions. See the --cloud parameter for the pac auth create command to find out about supported US Sovereign cloud environments.

Install Microsoft Power Platform CLI

You can install Microsoft Power Platform CLI using either or both of the following:

Installation Method	Description
Install using Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code	Enables use of commands within a PowerShell terminal within Visual Studio Code on Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux, and MacOS.
Install Power Platform CLI for Windows	Enables use of commands using PowerShell for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Certain commands, such as pac data, are only available using Power Platform CLI for Windows

Install using Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code

Follow these steps to install Microsoft Power Platform CLI using Visual Studio Code.

Open Visual Studio Code.
Select the Extensions icon from the Activity panel. In the search bar, enter Power Platform Tools.
Select Install. Once the installation is finished, restart Visual Studio Code to see the extension within the Terminal window.

Note

Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code updates automatically.
Optionally, you can initiate the install into Visual Studio Code directly from Marketplace and it will launch Visual Studio Code and commence the extension installation.

You can also do a side-load install into Visual Studio Code by downloading the extension from the Marketplace.

Side-load install of Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code

In some organizations, downloading or initiating an install over the web is prohibited. Most cases, the organization download the installation media and stores it in a secure location and verify that it is working according to their standards, before it is distributed within the organization. Use the following instructions to support this type of installation.

Go to the Marketplace and instead of pressing the Install button, click the Download Extension link under Resources.

This is will download a file with a .vsix extension on to your workstation.
Launch Visual Studio Code and select the Extensions icon, select the ellipsis on the Extensions side bar, and then select Install from VSIX.

Successful installation

Once the installation is successful, you will need to restart Visual Studio Code, upon which you will see the following notification.

Install notification

On the Activity bar. you'll notice the icon for the Power Platform Tools.

icon

The final check would be to launch the terminal window and type pac.

PAC CLI in the terminal window

Uninstall Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code

To uninstall Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code, follow the same steps as installing the extension, except this time select the Uninstall button.

Install Power Platform CLI for Windows

To install Power Platform CLI for Windows, download and run the .msi file found here: Microsoft Power Platform CLI and choose the Install option.

Update Power Platform CLI for Windows

To take advantage of all the latest capabilities, update Microsoft Power Platform CLI tooling to the latest version by using this command:

pac install latest

Note

pac install latest command is not applicable for Power Platform Tools for Visual Studio Code. It will look for updates and update automatically each time you open Visual Studio Code.

Uninstall Power Platform CLI for Windows

To uninstall Power Platform CLI for Windows, download and run the .msi from Microsoft Power Platform CLI and choose the Remove option.

Common commands

This table lists some of the common commands used in the PAC CLI.

Command	Description
pac admin	Commands for environment lifecycle features.
pac auth	Commands to connect to your environment.
pac application	Commands to install AppSource applications that are pre-requisites for the solution work in the target environment (Preview).
pac canvas	Commands for working with canvas app source files (Preview).
pac org	Commands for working with Dataverse environments.
pac package	Commands for working with solution packages.
pac paportal	Commands for working with Portals support for Microsoft Power Platform CLI.
pac pcf	Commands for working with Power Apps component framework.
pac plugin	Command to create a plug-in project.
pac solution	Commands for working with Dataverse solution projects.
pac telemetry	Manages the telemetry settings.

Tip

For the complete list of supported commands, see Microsoft Power Platform CLI Command Groups or run the pac command or pac <subcommand> - for example: pac solution.