redis-vl-dotnet

CLI

This section is the canonical guide for the redis-vl-dotnet command-line workflows. Use it when you want to validate schemas, inspect existing indexes, and create or remove indexes from a terminal session.

Build and install

Build the CLI project from the repository root:

dotnet build src/RedisVL.Cli/RedisVL.Cli.csproj

Run commands directly from source during local development:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- --help

If you want a reusable local executable, publish the CLI into a local folder and invoke the generated RedisVL.Cli.dll with dotnet:

dotnet publish src/RedisVL.Cli/RedisVL.Cli.csproj -c Release -o .artifacts/redisvl-cli
dotnet .artifacts/redisvl-cli/RedisVL.Cli.dll --help

Discover commands

The CLI has two command groups:

index for index lifecycle commands such as list, info, create, clear, and delete
schema for offline schema file commands such as validate and show

Show the top-level command tree:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- --help

Inspect a command group before running it:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index --help
dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- schema --help

Connection arguments

All index commands need a Redis connection string. Pass it explicitly with --redis:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index list --redis localhost:6379

Or set REDIS_VL_REDIS_URL once for the shell session and let the CLI reuse it:

export REDIS_VL_REDIS_URL=localhost:6379
dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index list

When neither --redis nor REDIS_VL_REDIS_URL is set, the CLI exits with an error before connecting.

Schema workflows

Validate a YAML schema file before using it to create an index:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- schema validate \
  --file examples/JsonStorageExample/schema.yaml

Show the parsed schema as JSON when you want to inspect the normalized index and field definitions:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- schema show \
  --file examples/JsonStorageExample/schema.yaml

These commands do not contact Redis. They only load and parse the YAML file on disk.

Index lifecycle workflows

List the current RediSearch indexes:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index list --redis localhost:6379

Inspect one index and print the discovered schema plus scalar FT.INFO attributes as JSON:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index info \
  --redis localhost:6379 \
  --name movies-cli-idx

Create an index from a YAML schema file:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index create \
  --redis localhost:6379 \
  --schema examples/JsonStorageExample/schema.yaml

Create an index inline when you want a quick HASH- or JSON-backed shape without a separate schema file:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index create \
  --redis localhost:6379 \
  --name movies-cli-idx \
  --prefix movie: \
  --storage hash \
  --field text:title \
  --field tag:genre \
  --field numeric:year

The inline --field syntax supports text, tag, numeric, and geo. Repeat --prefix or --field when you need more than one entry.

Use the create flags to control existing indexes:

--skip-if-exists returns success without replacing an existing index
--overwrite drops the existing index definition first
--drop-documents only applies together with --overwrite and removes indexed documents too

Clear documents from an index while keeping the index definition:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index clear \
  --redis localhost:6379 \
  --name movies-cli-idx \
  --batch-size 500

Delete an index definition:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index delete \
  --redis localhost:6379 \
  --name movies-cli-idx

Delete the index and the indexed documents in one step:

dotnet run --project src/RedisVL.Cli -- index delete \
  --redis localhost:6379 \
  --name movies-cli-idx \
  --drop-documents

Troubleshooting

Connection failures usually fall into one of these cases:

The '--redis' option is required when REDIS_VL_REDIS_URL is not set. means no connection string was provided by flag or environment variable.
It was not possible to connect… from StackExchange.Redis usually means Redis is not reachable on the host or port you passed. Recheck the container, local service, firewall, or forwarded port.
Authentication or TLS errors come from the connection string itself; use the same endpoint, password, and SSL parameters that work for your application code.

Module-related failures typically show up during index commands:

Errors mentioning FT._LIST, FT.INFO, or FT.CREATE usually mean Redis Search is not available on the target server.
JSON-backed schemas also need RedisJSON support. If you create a JSON index against a server without RedisJSON, use Redis Stack locally or switch the schema to HASH storage.
schema validate and schema show can still succeed against an environment that cannot run the index commands, because those schema commands only parse YAML locally.

Related sections

Core Features for the underlying schema and index model
Examples for runnable feature-area samples that pair with CLI-managed indexes
Testing for CLI-focused test coverage