Extension Command-Line Usage

Appium allows for the flexible installation and management of various extensions, such as drivers (which provide Appium with the capability to automate a given platform) and plugins (which can augment or alter the way individual Appium commands work). For a conceptual understanding of these entities, please review the Introduction.

Management of drivers and plugins is handled by Appium's Extension CLI (command-line interface).

Note

This reference uses placeholders to refer to various options. Anywhere you see one of these placeholders in the reference, ensure you replace it with the correct type of actual content.

Placeholder	Meaning
<ext-type>	"Extension type". It should be either driver or plugin. All the Extension CLI commands can be used with either drivers or plugins, so you must specify which type of extension will be used
<ext-name>	"Extension name". This is the short name of the extension found in a call to appium <ext-type> list. This is distinct from the NPM package name of the extension or, in general, the "install spec" of the extension.
<install-spec>	"Install specification". This refers to the string used to indicate what extension Appium should install.
<install-source>	This refers to the method that Appium should use to install an extension.

Commands

All Extension CLI commands begin with appium <ext-type>, i.e., either appium driver or appium plugin.

All Extension CLI commands can take an optional --json argument, which will return the result of the command as a machine-readable JSON string rather than the standard output, which is colourized and tuned for human consumption.

list

List installed and available extensions. "Available" extensions include those which are officially recognized by the Appium team, but you are not limited to installing only the extensions displayed in this list.

Usage:

appium <ext-type> list [--installed] [--updates] [--json]

Required arguments:

• <ext-type>: must be driver or plugin

Optional arguments:

• --installed: show only installed extensions, not installed plus available extensions
• --updates: for extensions installed via NPM, display a message if there are any updates
• --json: return the result in JSON format

install

Install an extension. If successful, respond with the short name of the extension which can be used in other invocations of the Extension CLI. If the extension is a driver, also note which platforms may be used with the driver.

Usage:

appium <ext-type> install <install-spec> [--source=<install-source>] [--package=<package-name>] [--json]

Required arguments:

• <ext-type>: must be driver or plugin
• <install-spec>: this is the name, location, and/or version of the extension you want to install. Its possible values are dependent on the <install-source> (see below).

Optional arguments:

• --source: this directs Appium where to find your extension. See below for a table of possible source types and corresponding install specification.
• --package: when <install-source> is git or github, --package is required. It should be the Node.js package name of the extension. Without this information, Appium will not be able to find the installed package.
• --json: return the result in JSON format

Install source type	Behaviour
None	This is the default behaviour when no --source is used. In this case, Appium will look at <install-spec> and match it against the name of extensions available when running appium <ext-type> list, i.e., against the officially recognized extension names. If found, it will install that extension at the latest version via NPM
npm	Install an extension based on its NPM package name. Here, <install-spec> must be the NPM package name with any additional NPM installation modifiers, like version (see below)
github	Install an extension via a GitHub spec of the form <org>/<repo>
git	Install an extension via a Git URL (e.g., git+ssh://git-host.com/repo.git)
local	Install an extension via a local path. This must be a path to the directory where the Node.js package information for the driver is located.

NPM-based <install-spec>

When Appium is installing an extension via NPM (as is the case when --source is either omitted or set to npm), the <install-spec> can be complex, and can include any kind of information allowed by npm install:

• [@scope]/<name>
• [@scope]/<name>@<version>
• [@scope]/<name>@<tag>
• [@scope]/<name>@<version range>

Examples

• Install the latest XCUITest driver:

  appium driver install xcuitest
  

• Install the XCUITest driver at version 4.11.1:

  appium driver install [email protected]
  

• Install the beta version of the @appium/fake-driver from NPM:

  appium driver install --source=npm @appium/fake-driver@beta
  

• Install a locally-developed plugin:

  appium plugin install --source=local /path/to/my/plugin
  

update

Update one or more extensions that have been installed via NPM. By default, Appium will not automatically update any extension that has a revision in its major version, so as to prevent unintended breaking changes.

Usage:

appium <ext-type> update <ext-name> [--unsafe] [--json]

Required arguments:

• <ext-type>: must be driver or plugin
• <ext-name>: the name of the extension to update, or the string installed (which will update all installed extensions)

Optional arguments:

• --unsafe: direct Appium to go ahead and update passed a major version boundary
• --json: return the result in JSON format

uninstall

Remove an installed extension.

Usage:

appium <ext-type> uninstall <ext-name> [--json]

Required arguments:

• <ext-type>: must be driver or plugin
• <ext-name>: the name of the extension to uninstall

Optional arguments:

• --json: return the result in JSON format

run

Run a script included in an extension package. Extension authors can include runnable scripts that assist with setup or perform other tasks. These scripts are given names (called the <script-name> in this reference) by extension authors and will generally be documented in extension documentation.

Usage:

appium <ext-type> run <ext-name> [--json] <script-name> [script-args]

Required arguments:

• <ext-type>: must be driver or plugin
• <ext-name>: the name of the extension whose script you want to run
• <script-name>: the name of the script the extension has published

Optional arguments:

• script-args: any arguments that Appium does not interpret as belonging to its own set of arguments will be passed along to the extension script
• --json: return the result in JSON format

Example (run the reset script included with the UiAutomator2 driver):

appium driver run uiautomator2 reset