CLI Commands
Protocol Tools
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ze bgp decode |
Decode BGP message from hex to JSON |
ze bgp encode |
Encode text route command to BGP wire hex |
Configuration Management
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ze config validate <file> |
Validate configuration file |
ze config edit |
Interactive configuration editor |
ze config migrate |
Convert ExaBGP config to ze format |
ze config fmt |
Format and normalize config file |
ze config dump |
Dump parsed configuration tree |
ze config diff <a> <b> |
Compare two configuration files |
ze config set |
Set a configuration value programmatically |
ze config import |
Import a configuration file into ze |
ze config rename |
Rename a configuration element |
ze config archive <name> |
Archive config to a named destination (guide) |
ze config history |
List rollback revisions |
ze config rollback <N> |
Restore revision N |
Schema Discovery
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ze schema list |
List all registered YANG schemas |
ze schema show <module> |
Show YANG content for a module |
ze schema handlers |
List handler→module mapping |
ze schema methods [module] |
List RPCs from YANG modules |
ze schema events |
List notifications from YANG |
ze schema protocol |
Show protocol version and format info |
Daemon Control
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ze <config-file> |
Start daemon with configuration |
ze signal reload |
Send SIGHUP — reload configuration |
ze signal stop |
Graceful shutdown (no GR marker) |
ze signal restart |
Graceful restart (writes GR marker, then shuts down) |
ze signal status |
Dump process status (SIGUSR1 equivalent) |
ze signal quit |
Send SIGQUIT — goroutine dump + halt |
ze status |
Check if daemon is running |
Runtime Interaction
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ze cli |
Interactive CLI (with -c <cmd> for single command) |
ze show <command> |
Read-only daemon commands |
Ping and traceroute: show ping and show traceroute run one-shot ICMP checks from the router itself using ze's internal engine -- no daemon required, they work as local handlers. monitor ping and monitor traceroute open a live, continuously-updating view (Ctrl-C to stop); pipe either through | log for scrollback, or add | resolve / | origin to enrich traceroute hops with reverse DNS or ASN info.
ze show ping 8.8.8.8 count 5 timeout 3s
ze show traceroute 8.8.8.8 max-hops 10 probes 1
ze cli -c "monitor ping 8.8.8.8 interval 500ms"
ze cli -c "monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | log | resolve"
Live peer dashboard: monitor bgp in the interactive CLI enters a live dashboard showing router identity, a sortable color-coded peer table with update rates, and drill-down detail view. Auto-refreshes every 2 seconds. Navigate with j/k, sort with s/S, Enter for detail, Esc to exit.
Commit confirmed: The editor supports commit confirmed <seconds> for safe remote changes. The config is applied immediately but auto-reverts if confirm is not issued within the timeout window (1-3600 seconds). Use confirm abort to revert manually. Modeled after Junos commit confirmed.
Command history persistence: Both ze config edit and ze cli persist command history to the zefs blob store. History survives application restarts, is stored per-mode (edit vs command) and per-user, with consecutive dedup and a configurable rolling window (default 100, max 10000). Graceful degradation when no blob store is available (in-memory only).
Login warnings: When an operator connects via SSH, ze checks for conditions requiring attention and displays warnings in the welcome area. Each warning includes a message and an actionable command. Currently checks for stale prefix data (peers with prefix-updated older than 6 months); run update bgp peer * prefix to refresh from PeeringDB.
Plugin debug shell: ze bgp plugin cli connects to the daemon via SSH, runs the 5-stage plugin handshake, and enters interactive command mode. Developers can test plugin protocol interactions by hand -- sending dispatch-command, subscribe-events, decode-nlri, etc. Accepts defaults (Enter through Q&A) or custom registration parameters (families, plugin name).
Other
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ze plugin <name> |
Run a registered plugin |
ze exabgp plugin |
Run ExaBGP plugin with ze bridge |
ze exabgp migrate |
Convert ExaBGP config to ze |
ze completion bash/zsh/fish/nushell |
Generate shell completion scripts |
ze --plugins |
List available internal plugins |