How To Use Mastodon CLI

Time needed: 2 minutes

The Mastodon CLI is already installed, but you have to know from where on the command line you can use it, and more importantly how.

1. Install Mastodon

   Obviously, you should have finished installing Mastodon on your server and have completed all steps. This means you’ll need to see something of a Mastodon interface here: mastodon.example.com/admin/
   If that’s the case, you can move back to the command line.

2. Log into your server

   Use your default root enabled user to log into your server.

3. Switch to the mastodon user

   With the following command you can switch to the mastodon user you’ve created during the installation process:
   su mastodon
   You’ll have confirmation when that’s been successful when the prompt changes in your command line interface to something like this:
   

4. Make sure you in the /live/ folder

   As you can see in the above screenshot, we’re in the /live folder. If you find yourself anywhere else, make sure to navigate to that folder first

5. Find the command you need

   In the Mastodon CLI documentation you can find a whole array of commands to use. Make sure you construct the command best you know based on that documentation.

6. Example command

   This is the command I needed to execute:
   tootctl accounts modify remkus --role Owner --confirm
   This will convert the specified remkus account to the role of owner without needing a confirmation email.
   This is what it looked like on the command line:
   RAILS_ENV=production ./bin/tootctl accounts modify remkus --role Owner --confirm
   Without including that RAILS_ENV part, you’ll get reports saying the tootctl command is not found: Command 'tootctl' not found.
   
   P.s. Make note of the lack of the actual tootctl part.

7. Hit Enter

   This is all there’s left to do. Enter and your command will be processed. The prompt should return with a simple OK confirmation.