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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/buttondown/cli/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The Buttondown CLI provides five core commands for managing your newsletter content locally.

Available Commands

Authentication

  • login - Configure your Buttondown API key
  • logout - Clear stored credentials

Content Synchronization

  • pull - Download emails and media from Buttondown
  • push - Upload local emails and media to Buttondown

Content Creation

  • create - Create a new draft email locally

Quick Start

First-time setup

# Log in with your API key
$ buttondown login --api-key=your-api-key
 Successfully configured API key!

# Pull existing content from Buttondown
$ buttondown pull
pulling
emails pulled: 0 updated, 5 created, 0 deleted, 0 failed
images pulled: 0 updated, 3 created, 0 deleted, 0 failed
All content saved to: ./buttondown

Create and publish a new email

# Create a new draft email
$ buttondown create --title="Welcome to my newsletter"
Created new draft email: ./buttondown/emails/welcome-to-my-newsletter.md

# Edit the email locally
$ vim ./buttondown/emails/welcome-to-my-newsletter.md

# Push changes to Buttondown
$ buttondown push
pushing
emails pushed: 0 updated, 1 created, 0 deleted, 0 failed

Work with a custom directory

# Pull to a specific directory
$ buttondown pull --directory=./my-newsletter

# Create an email in a specific directory
$ buttondown create --title="New Post" --directory=./my-newsletter

# Push from a specific directory
$ buttondown push --directory=./my-newsletter

Global Options

These flags are available for most commands:
--api-key
string
Your Buttondown API key. If not provided, the CLI will use the key from buttondown login.
--base-url
string
default:"https://api.buttondown.com/v1"
Your Buttondown API base URL. Only needed for self-hosted instances.
--directory
string
default:"./buttondown"
Directory to store or read Buttondown content.
--verbose
boolean
Enable verbose output for debugging.

Command Help

Run any command with --help to see usage information:
$ buttondown --help
$ buttondown login --help
$ buttondown pull --help

Getting Your API Key

To use the Buttondown CLI, you’ll need an API key:
  1. Log in to your Buttondown account
  2. Navigate to Settings → API
  3. Copy your API key
  4. Run buttondown login --api-key=YOUR_KEY
Your API key is stored securely in your system’s configuration directory and will be used for all subsequent commands.

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