Get started with the Nylas CLI

The Nylas CLI is an open-source command-line tool that handles the entire Nylas setup — account creation, app configuration, API key generation, and account connection — in a single interactive command.

Install the CLI

Install using your preferred method:
brew install nylas/nylas-cli/nylas
curl -fsSL https://cli.nylas.com/install.sh | bash
irm https://cli.nylas.com/install.ps1 | iex
Verify the installation:
```
nylas --version
```

Set up your application

Run the init wizard. It walks you through four steps in under a minute:

Create an account (or log into an existing one) via Google, Microsoft, or GitHub SSO
Select an application (or create a new one)
Generate an API key (named automatically for easy identification in the Dashboard)
Connect an email account from your synced accounts

nylas init

You can also sign up with a specific SSO provider:

nylas init --google

nylas init --microsoft

If you already have an API key from the Dashboard, skip the wizard entirely:

nylas init --api-key <NYLAS_API_KEY>

For EU data residency:

nylas init --api-key <NYLAS_API_KEY> --region eu

Once nylas init completes, you’re ready to make API calls. The CLI displays your grant ID (the connected account identifier) at the end of setup.

Make your first API call

List your five most recent messages using the CLI:

nylas email list --limit 5

Or call the Nylas API directly with curl. Replace <NYLAS_GRANT_ID> and <NYLAS_API_KEY> with the values from the setup step.

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>/messages?limit=5" \
  --header 'Accept: application/json, application/gzip' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <NYLAS_API_KEY>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json'

{
  "request_id": "d0c951b9-61db-4daa-ab19-cd44afeeabac",
  "data": [
    {
      "starred": false,
      "unread": true,
      "folders": ["UNREAD", "CATEGORY_PERSONAL", "INBOX"],
      "grant_id": "1",
      "date": 1706811644,
      "attachments": [
        {
          "id": "1",
          "grant_id": "1",
          "filename": "invite.ics",
          "size": 2504,
          "content_type": "text/calendar; charset=\"UTF-8\"; method=REQUEST"
        },
        {
          "id": "2",
          "grant_id": "1",
          "filename": "invite.ics",
          "size": 2504,
          "content_type": "application/ics; name=\"invite.ics\"",
          "is_inline": false,
          "content_disposition": "attachment; filename=\"invite.ics\""
        }
      ],
      "from": [
        {
          "name": "Nylas DevRel",
          "email": "[email protected]"
        }
      ],
      "id": "1",
      "object": "message",
      "snippet": "Send Email with Nylas APIs",
      "subject": "Learn how to Send Email with Nylas APIs",
      "thread_id": "1",
      "to": [
        {
          "name": "Nyla",
          "email": "[email protected]"
        }
      ],
      "created_at": 1706811644,
      "body": "Learn how to send emails using the Nylas APIs!"
    }
  ],
  "next_cursor": "123"
}

Connect more accounts

Add another email account at any time:

nylas auth login

List all connected accounts:

nylas auth list

Switch between accounts:

nylas auth switch

Useful commands

Here are some commands to try now that you’re set up:

Command	What it does
`nylas email list`	List recent messages
`nylas email send --to [email protected] --subject "Hello" --body "Hi"`	Send an email
`nylas email search --query "from:[email protected]"`	Search messages
`nylas calendar events list`	List upcoming calendar events
`nylas calendar events create --title "Standup" --start "tomorrow 9am" --end "tomorrow 9:30am"`	Create an event
`nylas contacts list`	List contacts
`nylas webhook list`	List configured webhooks

The CLI also includes AI-powered features:

Command	What it does
`nylas email smart-compose --prompt "Reply saying I'll be there"`	Draft an email with AI
`nylas calendar schedule ai "Coffee with Alex next Tuesday"`	Schedule with natural language
`nylas chat`	Open the AI chat interface

Add --json to any command for machine-readable output, or pipe to jq for filtering:

nylas email list --limit 10 --json | jq '.[].subject'

See the full CLI command reference for 100+ commands covering email, calendar, contacts, webhooks, and more.

What’s next

Email quickstart — send your first email with the Nylas API
Calendar quickstart — create your first event
Authentication — set up OAuth for your users
API reference — full endpoint documentation