Arduino CLI
Command line tool that provides board and library managers, a sketch builder, board detection, and uploading for any Arduino compatible board or platform.
What it does and how it connects
Arduino CLI is an all-in-one command line solution that provides board and library managers, a sketch builder, board detection, an uploader, and other tools needed to use any Arduino compatible board and platform from the command line or machine interfaces.
It is the heart of all official Arduino development software, including the Arduino IDE and Arduino Web Editor, per its documentation. A gRPC interface is documented for machine clients, with a client example in the repository.
It installs as a standalone tool and is licensed under GPL-3.0. The latest release at research time is v1.5.1.
Alternatives
Compare side by side- Arduino IDE
Arduino IDE is the open-source graphical environment for writing, compiling, and uploading sketches, with autocompletion and a live debugger.
- PlatformIO
PlatformIO is a cross-platform embedded development platform with an IDE for VS Code and a core CLI, supporting many boards and frameworks.
- ESP-IDF
ESP-IDF is the official development framework from Espressif for ESP32 and other Espressif chips, with drivers and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stacks.
Sources
Not verified
- Pricing: none stated on the docs or repo as read.
- Real user voices: no independent user voice found in the recent issues read; recent activity is maintainer pull requests.
- Related Error Index entries: no entry with software Arduino CLI was verified.
Last verified November 6, 2026. Listings are informational. The evidence score measures public, verifiable evidence and is not an endorsement or a compatibility claim.