The following content describes how to install and use the Firebase Command Line Interface (CLI) to manage, test, and deploy your Firebase projects—using the command line. You can use the Firebase CLI to accomplish any of the following tasks:

• To deploy code and assets to your Firebase projects
• To run a local web server for your Firebase Hosting site
• To interact with data in your Firebase database
• To import/Export users into/from Firebase Auth

To get started with the Firebase CLI, you can read the full list of commands below or at hosting-specific CLI documentation.

Before you can install the CLI, you need to install npm first, which typically comes with Node.js.

After npm is installed on your local machine, you can now get the Firebase CLI by following these steps:

1. Open terminal shell and run the following npm command:

   npm install -g firebase-tools

   Note: This will provide you with the globally accessible firebase command.

2. Verify that the Firebase CLI has been installed correctly on your local machine by running the following command:

   firebase --version

   Make sure that the version of the Firebase CLI is v4.1.0 or later.

3. After installing the CLI, you must authenticate. you can sign into Firebase using your Google account by running the following command:

   firebase login

   This command connects your local machine to Firebase and grants you access to your Firebase projects.

The command firebase --help lists the available commands and firebase <command> --help shows more details for an individual command.

If a command is project-specific, you must either be inside a project directory with an active project alias or specify the Firebase project id with the -P <project_id> flag.

Below is a brief list of the available commands and their function:

Append --no-localhost to login (i.e., firebase login --no-localhost) to copy and paste code instead of starting a local server for authentication. A use case might be if you SSH into an instance somewhere and you need to authenticate to Firebase on that machine.

These commands let you deploy and interact with your Firebase services.

Detailed doc is here.

The Firebase CLI requires a browser to complete authentication, but is fully compatible with CI and other headless environments.

1. On a machine with a browser, install the Firebase CLI.
2. Run firebase login:ci to log in and print out a new refresh token (the current CLI session will not be affected).
3. Store the output token in a secure but accessible way in your CI system.

There are two ways to use this token when running Firebase commands:

1. Store the token as the environment variable FIREBASE_TOKEN and it will automatically be utilized.
2. Run all commands with the --token <token> flag in your CI system.

The order of precedence for token loading is flag, environment variable, active project.

On any machine with the Firebase CLI, running firebase logout --token <token> will immediately revoke access for the specified token.

The Firebase CLI can also be used programmatically as a standard Node module. Each command is exposed as a function that takes an options object and returns a Promise. For example:

var client = require('firebase-tools');
client.list().then(function(data) {
  console.log(data);
}).catch(function(err) {
  // handle error
});

client.deploy({
  project: 'myfirebase',
  token: process.env.FIREBASE_TOKEN,
  force: true,
  cwd: '/path/to/project/folder'
}).then(function() {
  console.log('Rules have been deployed!')
}).catch(function(err) {
  // handle error
});

MIT License