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Command Reference

Ze commands fall into two categories: shell commands that run locally and runtime commands sent to the running daemon via SSH.

For the forward-looking cross-vendor roadmap (which commands VyOS / Junos / Nokia / Arista expose and ze's status per row), see command-catalogue.md.

Shell Commands

Run directly from the terminal. No daemon required (except ze signal, ze status, ze cli, and daemon-targeted ze show subcommands). Some ze show subcommands run locally: version, bgp decode, bgp encode, env, schema, yang, completion.

ze

Start the daemon or access subcommands.

ze <config-file>                 # Start daemon with config
ze start                         # Start daemon from database
Flag Purpose
-d, --debug Enable debug logging
-f <file> Use filesystem directly, bypass blob store
--plugin <name> Load plugin before starting a YANG/native config (repeatable). Hub/orchestrator configs reject this; use plugin { external ... } in the config instead.
--plugins List available internal plugins
--pprof <addr:port> Start pprof HTTP server
-V, --version Show version (also available as ze show version)
--chaos-seed <N> Enable chaos self-test mode
--chaos-rate <0-1> Fault probability per operation
--server <host:port> Override hub address for managed mode
--name <name> Override client name for managed mode
--token <token> Override auth token for managed mode
--color Force colored output (even when not a TTY)
--no-color Disable colored output (also: NO_COLOR env var, TERM=dumb)

ze config validate

Validate a configuration file without starting the daemon.

ze config validate <config-file>
ze config validate -q <config-file>     # Quiet: exit code only
ze config validate --json <config-file> # JSON output
Flag Purpose
-v Verbose output
-q Quiet mode (exit code only)
--json JSON output

Exit codes: 0 = valid, 1 = invalid, 2 = file not found.

Validation includes the commit-time backend capability gate: a config whose active backend leaf does not implement a feature it uses (e.g. backend vpp with a bridge, tunnel, wireguard, veth, or mirror entry) is rejected with one error per offending YANG path, matching the diagnostic the running daemon produces on reload. See Backend Capability Errors.

ze config

Configuration management.

Editing:

ze config edit [file]            # Interactive editor
ze config set <file> <path> <value>
ze config deactivate <file> <path>  # Mark a node inactive (kept in file, skipped at apply)
ze config activate <file> <path>    # Clear the inactive flag on a node

deactivate and activate accept any node type: leaf, container, list entry, or leaf-list value. The deactivated node round-trips through save/load and is skipped at apply time. See docs/guide/config-deactivate.md.

Storage:

ze config import <file>...       # Import files into the database
ze config import --name <n> <file>  # Import under a different name
ze config rename <old> <new>     # Rename a config in the database
ze config ls [prefix]            # List files in database
ze config cat <key>              # Print database entry

Inspection:

ze config validate <file>        # Validate configuration file
ze config dump <file>            # Dump parsed configuration
ze config diff <f1> <f2>         # Compare two configs
ze config diff <N> <file>        # Compare with rollback revision
ze config fmt <file>             # Format and normalize

History:

ze config history <file>         # List rollback revisions
ze config rollback <N> <file>    # Restore revision N
ze config archive <name> <file>  # Archive config (see config-archive.md)

Migration:

ze config migrate <file>         # Convert old format to current
Flag Purpose
-f Bypass database, use filesystem directly
-o <output> Output file (migrate)
--dry-run Show what would be migrated without changes (migrate)
--list List available transformations (migrate)
--format <fmt> Output format: set (default) or hierarchical (migrate)

ze signal

Send commands to the running daemon via SSH.

ze signal reload                 # Reload configuration
ze signal stop                   # Graceful shutdown (no GR marker)
ze signal restart                # Graceful restart (with GR marker)
ze signal reboot                 # Graceful shutdown + OS reboot (with GR marker, requires root on Linux)
ze signal status                 # Dump daemon status
ze signal quit                   # Immediate exit + goroutine dump
Flag Purpose
--host SSH host (default: 127.0.0.1 or ze_ssh_host)
--port SSH port (default: 2222 or ze_ssh_port)

Exit codes: 0 = ok, 1 = not running, 4 = command failed. Reload is transactional: the daemon stages the new config as a candidate version, runs verification and apply, then promotes the candidate to active only after the runtime accepts it.

ze status

Check if the daemon is running.

ze status
Flag Purpose
--host SSH host
--port SSH port

Exit codes: 0 = running, 1 = not running.

ze bgp

BGP protocol tools (offline, no daemon needed).

ze bgp decode <hex>              # Decode BGP message hex to JSON
ze bgp encode <route-command>    # Encode route command to BGP hex
ze bgp plugin cli                # Plugin debug shell (5-stage handshake + interactive)
ze bgp plugin cli --name <name>  # Debug shell with custom plugin name

# Also available via YANG verb dispatch (same behavior, no daemon needed):
ze show bgp decode <hex>
ze show bgp encode <route-command>

decode flags:

Flag Purpose
--open Decode as OPEN message
--update Decode as UPDATE message
--nlri <family> Decode as NLRI for family
-f <family> Address family
--json JSON output
--plugin <name> Load plugin (repeatable)

encode flags:

Flag Purpose
-f <family> Address family (default: ipv4/unicast)
-a <asn> Local ASN (default: 65533)
-z <asn> Peer ASN (default: 65533)
-i Enable feature
-n Dry run
--no-header Exclude BGP header
--asn4 4-byte ASN (default: true)

ze show warnings / ze show errors

Operational report bus. A single place for Ze subsystems to surface operator-visible issues. Warnings are state-based (a condition is currently problematic and may resolve). Errors are event-based (something already happened; no clear API). Both commands query the same in-process report bus and return newest-first JSON snapshots.

ze show warnings                       # JSON: {"warnings": [...], "count": N}
ze show warnings source bgp            # only warnings from the bgp subsystem
ze show errors                         # JSON: {"errors":   [...], "count": N}
ze show errors source l2tp             # only errors from the l2tp subsystem
ze show errors source l2tp count 5     # last 5 errors from l2tp

Issue shape (every entry in both responses):

Field Type Description
source string Subsystem that raised the issue (bgp, config, iface, ...)
code string Stable kebab-case identifier of the condition or event
severity string warning or error
subject string What the issue is about: peer address, transaction id, file path
message string Human-readable one-liner
detail object Optional structured context (family, code/subcode, reason, ...)
raised RFC 3339 time When the issue first appeared on the bus
updated RFC 3339 time Most recent raise time (warnings advance; errors equal raised)

Day-one BGP vocabulary (raised by the BGP reactor):

Severity Source/Code When raised When cleared
warning bgp / prefix-threshold Per-family prefix count crosses the configured warning threshold upward Per-family count drops below threshold
warning bgp / prefix-stale peer { prefix { updated ... } } date is older than 180 days Peer re-added with a fresher date, or peer removed
error bgp / notification-sent This ze instance sends a NOTIFICATION to a peer (code/subcode in detail) Never (errors are events)
error bgp / notification-received A peer sends a NOTIFICATION to this ze instance Never
error bgp / session-dropped An Established session ends without a NOTIFICATION exchange (TCP loss, hold-timer with no notification, peer FIN) Never

Capacity limits (configurable via env vars):

Env var Default Maximum Purpose
ze.report.warnings.max 1024 10000 Cap on active warning set, oldest-by-Updated evicted at cap
ze.report.errors.max 256 10000 Ring buffer size for recent error events

Over-limit raise calls are silently rejected and logged at debug level. Field length limits (Source 64, Code 64, Subject 256, Message 1024, Detail 16 keys) prevent any producer from pushing multi-megabyte entries.

Login banner integration: the Ze CLI login banner reads from the same bus, filtered by source bgp. One active warning shows the detail line; multiple warnings collapse to a count line pointing at show warnings.

ze show audit / ze show aaa accounting

Audit and accounting visibility for operator actions.

ze show audit
ze show audit action config-commit
ze show audit actor alice surface web count 20
ze show audit since 2026-05-24T10:00:00Z until 2026-05-24T11:00:00Z
ze show aaa accounting

show audit returns entries and count. Each entry includes timestamp, actor, remote-addr, surface, action, detail, and outcome. Filters are optional and can be combined. Time filters use RFC 3339.

show aaa accounting currently reports TACACS+ accounting queue drops: dropped-records is the number of START/STOP accounting records that could not be queued because the worker was stopped or the queue was full.

ze show system

Daemon process introspection. Three sibling commands surface the Go runtime state for the running ze process. Available via daemon SSH (online RPC); YANG registration only.

ze show system memory              # runtime.MemStats (alloc, heap, GC) + hardware enrichment
ze show system cpu                 # goroutine count, logical CPUs, GOMAXPROCS + hardware
ze show system date                # wall-clock time: RFC3339, Unix, timezone
ze show system platform            # runtime platform type and capabilities

Each response is a flat JSON map with kebab-case keys:

Command Top-level keys
show system memory alloc, total-alloc, sys, heap-alloc, heap-sys, heap-in-use, heap-objects, stack-in-use, num-gc, gc-cpu-pct, hardware (optional: physical memory + ECC from host.DetectMemory())
show system cpu num-cpu, num-goroutines, max-procs, go-version, hardware (optional: host.DetectCPU())
show system date time (RFC3339), unix, unix-nano, timezone, utc-offset-secs
show system platform type (gokrazy, systemd, container, plain-linux, darwin), read-only-root, perm-available, systemd-available, gokrazy-update-socket, gokrazy-ui-available, reboot-allowed, persistent-storage-writable, fd-limit-soft-current, fd-limit-hard-max, fd-limit-raisable
show system conntrack count, max, buckets, expect-max, accounting, timestamp, checksum, log-invalid, modules (loaded nf_conntrack_* list), timeouts (per-protocol), tcp-behavior (be-liberal, loose, max-retrans, ignore-invalid-rst)

The hardware subobject under memory and cpu mirrors the data returned by show host memory / show host cpu. Both paths are correct; pick show system * when you want runtime-first with hardware as context, show host * when you want hardware-first.

ze host show

Host hardware inventory. Read-only, no daemon required. Walks sysfs/procfs (and issues best-effort ethtool ioctls for NIC firmware/rings) to produce a structured JSON description of the machine. Defaults to JSON output for pipeline consumption (jq, Prometheus scrapers, SNMP shims); use --text for human-readable summaries.

ze host show                       # Full inventory (all sections), JSON
ze host show cpu                   # CPU only
ze host show nic                   # Physical NICs (virtual interfaces filtered)
ze host show dmi                   # DMI/SMBIOS board identity
ze host show memory                # /proc/meminfo + ECC counters (edac)
ze host show thermal               # hwmon sensors + per-CPU throttle counts
ze host show storage               # Block devices + NVMe firmware
ze host show kernel                # Kernel release, cmdline, microcode, arch flags
ze host show all                   # Every section in one payload
ze host show --text cpu            # Human-readable summary

The same sections are also available as RPCs over ze cli to a running daemon: show host cpu, show host nic, etc. Online and offline paths share the same detection library; the JSON shapes are identical.

Sections:

Section Fields (kebab-case keys)
cpu vendor, model-name, family, model, stepping, logical-cpus, physical-cores, threads-per-core, hybrid, scaling-driver, hwp-available, base-freq-mhz, max-freq-mhz, microcode, cores[] with per-core role (performance/efficient/uniform), current-freq-mhz, core-throttle-count, package-throttle-count
nic Per physical interface: name, driver, pci-vendor, pci-device, mac, link-speed-mbps, duplex, carrier, rx-queues, tx-queues, ring-rx, ring-tx, firmware-version
dmi system-vendor, system-product, board-*, bios-*, chassis-*
memory total-bytes, free-bytes, available-bytes, buffers-bytes, cached-bytes, swap-total-bytes, swap-free-bytes, ecc-correctable-errors, ecc-uncorrectable-errors, ecc-present
thermal sensors[] (hwmon: name, device, temp-mc, alarm), throttle[] (per-CPU core-throttle-count, package-throttle-count)
storage devices[] with name, size-bytes, model, serial, transport (nvme/sata/mmc/virtio/unknown), rotational, nvme-firmware-version (NVMe only), smart (via direct ioctl, no smartctl binary: healthy, temp-celsius, power-on-hours, error-count, percent-used (NVMe), available-spare (NVMe); unavailable + unavailable-note when device lacks SMART or insufficient privileges)
kernel release, version, architecture, cmdline, boot-time (RFC3339), boot-time-unix, microcode-revision, arch-flags[] (security-relevant subset: smep, smap, ibt, user_shstk, ibrs, ibrs_enhanced, ssbd)

All temperatures are reported in millicelsius (kernel hwmon convention). All sizes in bytes. All frequencies in MHz. Unreadable sysfs files are omitted from the JSON rather than returning null or an empty string. Permission errors are recorded in the inventory's errors[] array.

Virtual interface filtering: ze host show nic only reports physical interfaces. The filter is structural (presence of /sys/class/net/<n>/device/) rather than a driver-name allowlist, so new virtual drivers (wireguard, ipvlan, etc.) are filtered uniformly.

Platform: Linux only. Darwin and other platforms return ErrUnsupported per section; ze host show reports "unsupported on this platform" with exit 0 so scripts can probe gracefully.

show storage smart

Online RPC (requires running daemon with storage { smart { enabled true } } config):

show storage smart                 # Per-device SMART health status

Returns a JSON array of per-device objects:

Field Description
name Block device name (e.g. sda, nvme0n1)
transport nvme, sata, or unknown
healthy SMART overall health assessment
temp-celsius Current temperature (0 = not reported)
power-on-hours Cumulative powered-on hours
error-count Reallocated sector count (ATA) or media errors (NVMe)
percent-used NVMe endurance estimate (0-255, NVMe only)
available-spare NVMe spare capacity percentage (NVMe only)
smart-enabled Whether SMART enable command succeeded
last-checked Timestamp of last health poll
last-short-test Timestamp of last short self-test (if scheduled)
last-long-test Timestamp of last extended self-test (if scheduled)

Temperature alerts are emitted to the report bus (show warnings / show errors): temp-high (informational threshold), temp-rising (rate-of-change), temp-critical (critical threshold), smart-failing (health status failed).

ze support

Generate a tech-support archive for troubleshooting. Collects system state, health checks, configuration, logs, and diagnostics into a compressed tar.gz with one JSON file per module. No shell-outs; gokrazy-safe.

ze support                             # Full bundle, all 19 modules
ze support --module version,doctor     # Only named modules
ze support --exclude logs              # All except named modules
ze support --json                      # Output manifest JSON to stdout
ze support --list-modules              # List available modules
ze support --reason "BGP flap"         # Embed reason in manifest
ze support --sensitive                 # Include passwords (default: redacted)
ze support --since 2h                  # Time scope for log collection
ze support --output /var/support/      # Output directory (default: cwd)

ze interface

OS network interface management (standalone, no daemon needed for most commands). Show uses the verb syntax: ze show interface.

ze show interface                  # List all interfaces (also via daemon SSH)
ze show interface brief            # One-line-per-interface summary
ze show interface detail <name>    # Show details for one interface
ze show interface counters <name>  # Counters only for named interface
ze show interface type <type>      # Filter by type (ethernet, bridge, vxlan, wireguard, ...)
ze show interface errors           # Interfaces with non-zero Rx/Tx error or drop counters
ze show interface rate             # Per-second rate data for all interfaces
ze show interface rate <name>      # Per-second rate data for one interface
ze show interface --json           # JSON output
ze interface create dummy <name>   # Create a dummy interface
ze interface create veth <n> <p>   # Create a veth pair
ze interface delete <name>         # Delete an interface
ze interface unit add <name> <id> [vlan-id <vid>]  # Add a logical unit
ze interface unit del <name> <id>  # Delete a logical unit
ze interface addr add <name> unit <id> <cidr>      # Add IP address
ze interface addr del <name> unit <id> <cidr>      # Remove IP address
ze interface migrate ...           # Make-before-break migration (requires daemon)

show interface type <type> is case-insensitive; unknown types reject with the sorted list of types actually present on the system. Empty-Type interfaces are hidden from both the response and the valid-types list.

show interface errors skips interfaces without stats and interfaces whose RxErrors, RxDropped, TxErrors, TxDropped counters are all zero. The response includes only the four counter fields per interface for compact diffing across snapshots.

show traffic

Traffic control (TC) state. Queries the active TC backend for qdisc, class, and filter state per interface. Returns "traffic control not available on this platform" when no TC backend is loaded (e.g. on macOS).

ze show traffic                   # Summary of all interfaces with qdiscs
ze show traffic <ifname>          # Detail for one interface

show flow-export

Per-collector flow export statistics for the flowexport component (sFlow v5, NetFlow v9, IPFIX). Returns {"status": "not-configured"} when no flow-export { } section is present.

ze show flow-export               # All configured collectors
ze show flow-export <collector>   # One collector by name (error if not found)

Each entry reports name, address, port, protocol, datagrams-sent, bytes-sent, errors, sequence, and last-export-time (Unix seconds, omitted before the first poll). JSON by default; full pipe operators supported. See the Flow Export guide.

show ip

Kernel routing and neighbor tables. Both commands dispatch through the iface backend; on the netlink backend they read the live kernel state, on VPP they reject under exact-or-reject since the kernel FIB/ARP table is not the authoritative forwarding source there.

ze show ip arp                         # Kernel neighbor table (IPv4 ARP + IPv6 ND)
ze show ip arp --family ipv4           # IPv4 only
ze show ip arp --family ipv6           # IPv6 only
ze show ip route                       # Full kernel routing table (all protocols)
ze show ip route <cidr>                # Filter to an exact CIDR match
ze show ip route default                # Default route(s) (0.0.0.0/0, ::/0)

show ip arp returns per-entry address, mac-address, device, family, and state (reachable, stale, delay, probe, failed, permanent, noarp, incomplete). Unresolved entries (no IP) are skipped. FAILED and INCOMPLETE entries are kept with an empty MAC so operators can diagnose neighbor discovery problems.

show ip route renders the protocol field by name for well-known values (kernel, static, bgp, ra, dhcp, zebra, ze for RTPROT_ZE=250, plus ospf/isis/rip/eigrp/babel) and as a decimal string otherwise. Connected routes have an empty nexthop; the source field carries the preferred-source IP when the kernel reports one.

show mpls

MPLS label-switching forwarding table, read directly from the kernel AF_MPLS routing table (the authoritative dataplane state, like show ip route for IP).

ze show mpls forwarding                 # All installed MPLS forwarding entries
ze show mpls forwarding --limit 500     # Cap the response size

Each entry reports the incoming label (in-label), the operation applied (swap when an outgoing label stack is programmed, pop for disposition / implicit-null), any out-labels, the next-hop, and the egress device. On non-Linux platforms the table is empty (the kernel MPLS FIB is Linux-only).

show pki

PKI certificate store introspection. Shows certificates loaded from the pki {} config section.

ze show pki certificates                           # List all loaded certs (CA + device)
ze show pki certificate <name>                     # Full details for a named certificate
ze show pki certificate <name> pem                 # PEM-encoded certificate (+ intermediate)
ze show pki certificate <name> bundle pem          # Certificate + private key in one PEM
ze show pki certificate <name> fingerprint         # SHA-256 fingerprint (colon-separated hex)
ze show pki certificate <name> fingerprint sha512  # SHA-512 fingerprint

show pki certificates returns a sorted list of all loaded certificates with name, type (ca/device), subject CN, issuer CN, expiry date, key algorithm, and validity status.

show pki certificate <name> returns full details: subject, issuer, serial, validity period, key algorithm, key size, SANs, key usage, private key presence, and chain validation status.

show pki certificate <name> pem returns the certificate in PEM format. Includes the intermediate certificate if one is stored.

show pki certificate <name> bundle pem returns the certificate and its private key concatenated in PEM format (device certificates only). Useful for clients that need a single PEM file (e.g. OpenConnect).

show pki certificate <name> fingerprint [sha256|sha384|sha512] returns the DER fingerprint as colon-separated hex. Defaults to SHA-256.

show firewall

Firewall (nftables) introspection. Requires the firewall { ... } section in config so the firewall plugin loads and applies a backend; without it the handlers reject under exact-or-reject.

ze show firewall ruleset <name>         # Rules + per-term counters for table <name>
ze show firewall group                  # List all known group names (applied sets)
ze show firewall group <name>           # Elements of a named group

show firewall ruleset joins the applied desired state (chains + terms) with kernel counters read back via the nft backend's GetCounters call. Every rule is auto-instrumented with an anonymous counter expression when applied; the term name is stored in nftables' Rule.UserData and recovered on readback so the join is explicit (not index-based). Rejects when no firewall backend is loaded or when the active backend is not nft.

show firewall group reads from the applied-state snapshot, not the kernel -- groups (nftables named sets) are part of the desired state the operator typed into config. Calling with no argument returns { name, tables[], members } per group; a positional name returns the raw elements.

show system uptime

ze show system uptime        # Daemon start time and uptime duration

Returns start-time (RFC3339) and uptime (truncated to seconds). Returns an error when the daemon is not running (context is nil or the reactor is absent).

show system sockets

ze show system sockets                          # All TCP and UDP sockets
ze show system sockets tcp                      # TCP only
ze show system sockets tcp state ESTABLISHED    # Filter by state
ze show system sockets tcp port 179             # Filter by port

Returns JSON array of sockets with protocol, local-addr, local-port, remote-addr, remote-port, state, tx-queue, rx-queue. Linux only.

show system kernel-log

ze show system kernel-log                       # Last 50 entries
ze show system kernel-log count 20              # Last 20 entries
ze show system kernel-log level err             # Errors and above
ze show system kernel-log level err count 10    # Combined

Reads /dev/kmsg. Returns entries with level, sequence, timestamp-us, message. Levels: emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug. Linux only.

show system goroutines

ze show system goroutines summary    # Count by state
ze show system goroutines blocked    # Only waiting goroutines
ze show system goroutines full       # Full stack dump

The full mode uses singleflight deduplication: concurrent requests share a single 16 MB allocation.

show tcp-check

ze show tcp-check <host> <port>                    # Basic connectivity test
ze show tcp-check <host> <port> timeout 3s         # Custom timeout (1s-30s)
ze show tcp-check <host> <port> source 10.0.0.1    # Bind source IP

Returns result (connected/refused/timeout) and latency-ms.

show traceroute

ze show traceroute 8.8.8.8                        # Trace path to target
ze show traceroute 8.8.8.8 max-hops 10            # Limit to 10 hops (1-64)
ze show traceroute 8.8.8.8 timeout 2s             # Per-probe timeout (1s-30s)
ze show traceroute 8.8.8.8 probes 1               # 1 probe per hop (1-10)
ze show traceroute 2001:db8::1                     # IPv6 target
ze show traceroute example.com                     # Hostname (resolved to IP)

Returns JSON with target and per-hop array. Each hop has: hop (int), addr (string or "*" for timeout), rtt-ms (float or null), ttl (int). Requires CAP_NET_RAW (root privilege enforced at startup).

monitor traceroute

monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8                          # Live mtr-style path trace (alt screen)
monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 max-hops 10              # Limit to 10 hops (1-64, default 16)
monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | log                    # Appending scrollback, one line per round
monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | log | resolve          # Log with reverse DNS in hop legend
monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | log | origin           # Log with ASN/network in hop legend
monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | table                  # Alt screen with formatted output
monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | json                   # Alt screen with JSON per round

Continuous mtr-style traceroute. Plain mode uses the alt screen with columns: Hop, Address, Loss%, Snt, Last, Avg, Best, Wrst, StDev. Each round is a complete trace. Esc/q/Ctrl-C to stop; last snapshot copied to scrollback.

In | log mode, the hop legend (printed every 25 rounds) is enriched by | resolve (adds reverse DNS hostnames) or | origin (adds ASN name or AS number from Team Cymru).

Requires CAP_NET_RAW.

monitor ping

monitor ping 8.8.8.8                                # Live ping (alt screen, 1s interval)
monitor ping 8.8.8.8 interval 500ms                 # Custom interval (100ms-30s)
monitor ping 8.8.8.8 timeout 3s                     # Custom timeout (1s-30s)
monitor ping 8.8.8.8 | log                          # Appending scrollback, one line per reply
monitor ping 8.8.8.8 | table                        # Alt screen with formatted stats
monitor ping 8.8.8.8 | json                         # Alt screen with JSON per reply

Continuous ICMP ping. Plain mode uses the alt screen showing: Sent, Recv, Loss%, Last, Min, Avg, Max, StDev. Esc/q/Ctrl-C to stop.

Default interval: 1s. Default timeout: 5s.

Requires CAP_NET_RAW.

show capture interface

ze show capture interface eth0                                  # Capture 100 packets, pcap output
ze show capture interface eth0 count 10                         # Capture 10 packets
ze show capture interface eth0 duration 5s                      # Capture for 5 seconds
ze show capture interface eth0 tcp port 179 count 10            # BPF filter: TCP port 179
ze show capture interface eth0 format text                      # Human-readable one-line-per-packet
ze show capture interface eth0 snap-len 128 format text         # Truncate packets to 128 bytes
ze show capture interface eth0 udp port 53 count 5 format text  # DNS traffic, text output

Live packet capture using AF_PACKET raw sockets with BPF filters. Replaces tcpdump on gokrazy appliances. Default output is base64-encoded pcap (pipe to base64 -d > capture.pcap for Wireshark). format text produces one line per packet: TIMESTAMP PROTO SRC:PORT -> DST:PORT FLAGS LEN HEX. Limits: count 1-10000, duration 1s-60s, snap-len 64-65535. One active capture per interface. Linux only (requires CAP_NET_RAW). Pure Go, no libpcap/cgo dependency.

show system file-descriptors

ze show system file-descriptors summary    # Counts by type + limits
ze show system file-descriptors detail     # Full FD list with targets

Returns total, by-type (socket/pipe/file/anon_inode), soft-limit, hard-limit. Linux only.

show dns lookup

ze show dns lookup example.com                 # A record (default)
ze show dns lookup example.com type AAAA       # AAAA record
ze show dns lookup example.com type MX         # MX record

Returns structured JSON with name, type, records, count, query-time-ms. Supported types: A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, PTR.

show dns cache

ze show dns cache stats               # Cache hit/miss/eviction counters + hit-rate/miss-rate
ze show dns cache list                # List all non-expired cached entries (sorted by TTL ascending)
ze show dns cache record example.com  # Show cached entries for a specific name

stats returns entries, capacity, hits, misses, evictions, expired, hit-rate, miss-rate. list returns each entry with name, type, records, and ttl-seconds. record <name> filters cached entries by name (all types for that name).

clear dns cache

clear dns cache                                     # Flush all entries and reset all counters
clear dns cache stats                               # Zero counters without removing entries
clear dns cache record example.com                  # Delete all entries matching name (all types)
clear dns cache record example.com type AAAA        # Delete a single entry by name and type

show system profile

ze show system profile heap                     # Heap profile
ze show system profile cpu duration 10s         # CPU profile (1s-60s)
ze show system profile goroutine                # Goroutine profile
ze show system profile allocs                   # Allocation profile

Returns base64-encoded pprof data. CPU profiling is mutex-protected: concurrent requests return an error.

show system memory-map

ze show system memory-map    # Process memory from /proc/self/status

Returns vm-rss-kb, vm-size-kb, vm-swap-kb, vm-peak-kb, vm-data-kb, vm-stack-kb, threads. Linux only.

show system update

ze show system update           # Firmware update status
ze show system update | json    # Machine-readable output

Returns: running-version, remote-version, update-available, status, last-check, last-error, download-status, download-sha256, staged-version, staged-path, restart, server-paused.

Status values: "up to date", "update available", "downloading", "verifying", "staged", "paused by server", "waiting for maintenance window", "waiting for spread", "check failed", "not configured", "error: ...".

show system update history

ze show system update history           # Last 20 update events
ze show system update history | table   # Tabular view

Returns an array of events with: timestamp, from (version), to (version), result. Result values: "success", "failed-download", "failed-checksum", "failed-stage", "blocked-minimum-version", "paused".

History is persisted to ze-update-history.json in the binary's directory and survives restarts.

update system firmware

ze update system firmware check       # Immediate version check (bypass interval timer)
ze update system firmware download    # Download now (bypass spread, maintenance window)
ze update system firmware apply       # Full cycle: download+verify+stage+restart
ze update system firmware restart     # Restart into staged version now
ze update system firmware rollback    # Restore .prev binary and restart

All firmware commands are RPC-only (no config state change). They override the automated schedule for one-shot operation.

apply and download bypass server-side pause (pause is for automated fleet rollout, not manual intervention). Both check minimum-version and warn when sha256 is absent from the manifest.

rollback renames the .prev backup to the target binary and restarts. After rollback, .prev no longer exists and the new version is gone from disk.

show summary

ze show summary                  # Every configured peer
ze show summary ipv4             # Expanded to ipv4/unicast
ze show summary ipv6             # Expanded to ipv6/unicast
ze show summary l2vpn            # Expanded to l2vpn/evpn
ze show summary <afi>/<safi>     # Full AFI/SAFI form (e.g. ipv4/vpn)

The family argument is validated against the families any peer has actually negotiated; unknown or un-negotiated families reject with the sorted set of currently-negotiated families so the operator sees exactly what is reachable on the running daemon.

ping / traceroute

ze ping <target> [--count N] [--interface IF]
ze traceroute <target> [--probes N] [--interface IF]

Thin wrappers over the OS's ping and traceroute binaries.

show crashes / ze crashes show

Online (daemon running):

show crashes           # List crash files with timestamp and size
show crashes latest    # Display full content of most recent crash report

Offline (no daemon required):

ze crashes show          # List crash files (JSON)
ze crashes show latest   # Display most recent crash report

Crash reports contain the panic stack trace, ring buffer context (last 64 log entries before the crash), version, build date, and uptime. Crash files are stored in the autodetected crash directory (see ze.crash.dir env var).

The offline variant works when the daemon is down (which is when you need it most, after a crash).

clear interface counters

ze clear interface counters                # Reset counters on every managed interface
ze clear interface counters <name>         # Reset counters on one interface

Grammar uses action-before-identifier: counters keyword first, then the optional interface name. Bare ze clear interface counters (no name) clears all interfaces. The old forms clear interface <name> counters and clear interface <name> are still accepted with a deprecation warning. Errors in argument shape (unknown trailing keyword, three or more tokens) reject with the usage line rather than silently defaulting to "all".

The clear verb resets runtime/operational state without touching configuration. Backends that expose a real counter-reset syscall (VPP's sw_interface_clear_stats, once wired) zero the kernel counters directly. Linux netlink has no generic counter-reset, so ze falls back to a per-interface baseline: the current raw counter values are captured, and every subsequent show interface [counters] read subtracts the baseline before returning so the operator sees "since last clear" deltas.

Wrap detection: if a subsequent read observes a raw counter lower than its baseline (interface bounce, driver reload, delete+recreate), ze treats it as a kernel-level reset, drops the baseline, and returns the raw value. Subsequent reads resume from the kernel's new zero without underflow.

migrate flags (dispatched to running daemon via SSH):

Flag Purpose
--from <iface>.<unit> Source interface and unit (required)
--to <iface>.<unit> Destination interface and unit (required)
--address <cidr> IP address to migrate (required)
--create <type> Create new interface: dummy, veth, bridge
--timeout <duration> BGP readiness timeout (default: 30s)

ze exabgp

ExaBGP compatibility tools.

ze exabgp plugin <cmd> [args]    # Run ExaBGP plugin with ze
ze exabgp migrate <file>         # Convert ExaBGP config to ze
ze exabgp migrate --env <file>   # Convert ExaBGP env file to ze config

migrate flags:

Flag Purpose
--dry-run Show what would be done without output
--env <file> Migrate ExaBGP INI environment file

plugin flags:

Flag Purpose
--family <family> Address family (repeatable)
--route-refresh Enable route-refresh
--add-path <mode> ADD-PATH mode: receive, send, both

When launched by ze's process manager (as an external plugin), the bridge detects ZE_PLUGIN_HUB_TOKEN and automatically uses TLS connect-back with the SDK. In standalone mode (no env var), it uses stdin/stdout with inline MuxConn framing.

ze schema

Schema discovery.

ze schema list                   # List registered schemas
ze schema show <module>          # Show YANG module content
ze schema handlers               # List handler-to-module mapping
ze schema methods [module]       # List RPCs from YANG
ze schema events [module]        # List notifications
ze schema protocol               # Show protocol version

All subcommands accept --json.

ze yang

YANG analysis.

ze yang completion               # Detect prefix collisions
ze yang tree                     # Print unified tree
ze yang doc [command]            # Command documentation
Flag Purpose
--json JSON output
--commands Show command tree (tree)
--config Show config tree (tree)
--min-prefix <N> Minimum prefix length (completion, default: 1)
--list List commands (doc)

ze init

Bootstrap the database (interactive or piped).

ze init                          # Interactive setup
ze init -managed                 # Fleet mode
ze init -force                   # Replace existing database

Prompts for: username, password, host (127.0.0.1), port (2222), name (hostname). After credentials are stored, ze init discovers OS network interfaces via netlink and writes initial interface configuration (ethernet, bridge, veth, dummy, loopback) to the database as ze.conf.

ze install

Zero-touch provisioning server. Generates a ze config from CLI flags and forks ze - to start DHCP+PXE, TFTP, and HTTP servers for PXE-booting target machines with a gokrazy image.

ze install remote --interface eth0 --network 10.0.0.0/24 \
  --image /path/to/gokrazy.img \
  --ssh-username admin --ssh-password secret
Flag Purpose
--interface Network interface for provisioning (required)
--network Provisioning network CIDR, /8../30 (required)
--image Path to gokrazy disk image (required)
--ssh-username Admin username for installed target (required)
--ssh-password Admin password, bcrypt-hashed before use (required)
--address Override server IP (default: first IPv4 on interface)

The DHCP pool range scales with subnet size: for a /24 the pool spans the full host range minus the server IP; for a /28 only the available hosts are offered. PXE options select BIOS or UEFI bootfile based on client architecture (option 93).

Requires root on Linux (DHCP port 67, TFTP port 69, HTTP port 80). On gokrazy appliances ze runs as root by default.

SIGTERM/SIGINT are forwarded to the child ze process for clean shutdown.

ze service

Manage ze as a systemd service on standard Linux hosts. This command is for non-gokrazy deployments where ze runs under systemd.

sudo ze service install              # write and enable ze.service
sudo ze service install --start      # install, enable, and start
ze service install --dry-run         # print the unit file, no writes
ze service status                    # run systemctl status ze.service
sudo ze service uninstall            # stop, disable, and remove the unit
Flag Purpose
--config <dir> Override the config directory used in the unit file
--start Start the service after enabling it
--force Overwrite an existing /etc/systemd/system/ze.service
--dry-run Print the generated unit file to stdout without root, systemctl, or filesystem writes

ze service install requires Linux, systemctl, root, and an existing <config-dir>/database.zefs. Run sudo ze init first. The generated unit runs as user/group ze, sets XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/ze, creates /run/ze through RuntimeDirectory=ze, and grants CAP_NET_ADMIN, CAP_NET_RAW, and CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE through systemd capabilities.

The daemon socket is /run/ze/ze.socket under this unit. Configure daemon { socket "/run/ze/ze.socket"; } or run operator commands with XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/ze so local CLI commands connect to the same socket.

ze passwd

Bcrypt-hash a plaintext password for use in system.authentication.user.password. Reads from stdin (piped, single line) or interactive TTY (prompts twice for confirmation). Uses bcrypt.DefaultCost (10), the same cost as ze init.

echo "secret" | ze passwd                                # one-shot pipe
ze passwd                                                # interactive

The output is suitable for direct paste into a YANG password leaf, or as a shell substitution into ze config set ... password "$(echo s | ze passwd)".

--user / -u flag (all client CLIs)

ze cli, ze bgp plugin cli, ze signal, ze config set, ze config edit, and ze interface migrate accept --user <name> (long) and -u <name> (short) to override the bootstrap super-admin username. Without the flag, the CLI uses the username stored in meta/ssh/username by ze init.

Source Wins over
--user/-u flag env, zefs
ze.ssh.username env var zefs
zefs meta/ssh/username (default)

The password for a non-super-admin user must come from ze.ssh.password (env) or an interactive prompt. There is intentionally no --password flag (passwords in argv leak into shell history and ps).

See authentication.md for the full multi-user workflow.

ze start --web

Add the HTTPS web interface alongside the BGP daemon. The web server runs on a separate port and provides configuration viewing, editing, and admin commands.

ze start --web 8443                              # Start daemon + web on port 8443
ze start --web 8443 --insecure-web               # No authentication (forces 127.0.0.1)
ze start --mcp 9718                              # Start daemon + MCP server
ze start --web 8443 --mcp 9718                   # Both web and MCP
Flag Purpose
--web <port> Start web interface on 0.0.0.0:<port>
--insecure-web Disable authentication (forces 127.0.0.1, requires --web)
--mcp <port> Start MCP server on 127.0.0.1:<port> (AI control interface)

The web server uses a self-signed ECDSA P-256 certificate (persisted in zefs) with SANs for localhost, 127.0.0.1, ::1, and the listen address.

See Web Interface Guide for full usage documentation.

ze debug

Persistent debug flags stored in ZeFS. Flags survive daemon restarts.

ze debug enable <subsystem|all>    # Enable debug logging
ze debug disable <subsystem|all>   # Disable debug logging
ze debug show                      # Show debug state for all subsystems

Three-tier resolution: global override > per-subsystem key > default (off). Hierarchical prefixes work: ze debug enable bgp enables all bgp.* subsystems.

ze data

Low-level blob store management.

ze data import <file>...           # Import files into blob
ze data rm <key>...                # Remove entries
ze data ls [prefix]                # List entries
ze data cat <key>                  # Print entry content
ze data registered                 # List all registered key patterns
ze data registered <pattern>       # Show details for a key pattern
Flag Purpose
--path <store> Blob store path

ze plugin

Plugin management.

ze plugin <name> [args]          # Run plugin CLI handler
ze plugin test                   # Test plugin schema/config

ze completion

Generate shell completion scripts for bash, zsh, fish, and nushell. The scripts provide tab completion for subcommands, flags, plugin names, YANG schema modules, show/run command trees, and argument values (address families, log levels).

ze completion bash
ze completion zsh
ze completion fish
ze completion nushell

Installation

Shell Quick (current session) Persistent
Bash eval "$(ze completion bash)" ze completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/ze
Zsh eval "$(ze completion zsh)" ze completion zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_ze && autoload -Uz compinit && compinit
Fish ze completion fish | source ze completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/ze.fish
Nushell ze completion nushell | save -f ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "completions" "ze.nu") Add source completions/ze.nu to config.nu

ze env

Environment variable management.

ze env registered                # List all registered env vars + log subsystems
ze env registered <key>          # Show details for a specific env var
ze env list -v                   # List with current effective values
ze env get <key>                 # Show single env var details
Flag Purpose
-v, --verbose Show current effective values (list)

ze resolve

Query DNS, Team Cymru, PeeringDB, and IRR resolution services. Offline tool -- no running daemon required.

ze resolve dns a example.com                           # IPv4 address records
ze resolve dns aaaa example.com                        # IPv6 address records
ze resolve dns txt example.com                         # TXT records
ze resolve dns ptr 8.8.8.8                             # Reverse DNS
ze resolve cymru asn-name 13335                        # ASN to org name
ze resolve peeringdb max-prefix 13335                  # IPv4/IPv6 prefix counts
ze resolve peeringdb as-set 13335                      # Registered IRR AS-SETs
ze resolve irr as-set AS-CLOUDFLARE                    # Expand AS-SET to member ASNs
ze resolve irr prefix AS-CLOUDFLARE                    # Lookup announced prefixes
Flag Subcommand Purpose
--server <host> dns, irr Override DNS/whois server
--dns-server <host> cymru Override DNS server for TXT queries
--url <url> peeringdb Override PeeringDB API base URL

ze-perf

BGP propagation latency benchmark tool. Separate binary from ze.

ze-perf <command> [flags]
Command Purpose
run Run benchmark against a BGP DUT
report Generate comparison report from result files
track Track performance history and detect regressions

ze-perf run

Run a BGP propagation benchmark against a device under test (DUT). Establishes sender and receiver sessions with the DUT, injects routes from the sender, and measures how quickly they propagate through to the receiver.

ze-perf run --dut-addr 172.31.0.2 --dut-asn 65000
ze-perf run --dut-addr 172.31.0.5 --dut-asn 65000 --dut-name gobgp --routes 10000 --json
ze-perf run --dut-addr 172.31.0.2 --dut-asn 65000 --family ipv6/unicast
ze-perf run --dut-addr 172.31.0.2 --dut-asn 65000 --force-mp --repeat 10

DUT flags:

Flag Type Default Purpose
--dut-addr string (required) DUT BGP address
--dut-port int 179 DUT BGP port
--dut-asn int (required) DUT autonomous system number
--dut-name string unknown DUT implementation name (appears in results)
--dut-version string DUT version string

Sender/receiver flags:

Flag Type Default Purpose
--sender-addr string 127.0.0.1 Sender local address
--sender-asn int 65001 Sender autonomous system number
--sender-port int 0 DUT port for sender (0 = use --dut-port)
--receiver-addr string 127.0.0.2 Receiver local address
--receiver-asn int 65002 Receiver autonomous system number
--receiver-port int 0 DUT port for receiver (0 = use --dut-port)

Benchmark flags:

Flag Type Default Purpose
--routes int 1000 Number of routes to inject
--family string ipv4/unicast Address family (ipv4/unicast or ipv6/unicast)
--force-mp bool false Force MP_REACH_NLRI for IPv4 unicast
--seed uint64 0 Deterministic seed (0 = random)
--warmup duration 2s Warmup delay after session establishment
--connect-timeout duration 10s TCP connection timeout
--duration duration 60s Maximum time to wait for convergence per iteration

Iteration flags:

Flag Type Default Purpose
--repeat int 5 Number of benchmark iterations
--warmup-runs int 1 Warmup iterations (discarded from results)
--iter-delay duration 3s Delay between iterations
--batch-size int 0 UPDATE batch size (0 = single UPDATE per prefix)

Output flags:

Flag Type Default Purpose
--json bool false JSON output
--output string Output file path (implies --json)

Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = error (missing flags, validation failure, benchmark failure).

ze-perf report

Generate a comparison report from one or more result JSON files.

ze-perf report result-ze.json result-gobgp.json
ze-perf report --html result-ze.json result-gobgp.json > report.html
Flag Type Default Purpose
--md bool true Markdown output
--html bool false HTML output (overrides --md)

Reads result JSON files produced by ze-perf run --json and generates a side-by-side comparison table.

ze-perf track

Track performance history and detect regressions from an NDJSON file.

ze-perf track history.ndjson
ze-perf track --check history.ndjson
ze-perf track --html history.ndjson > trend.html
ze-perf track --check --threshold-convergence 15 history.ndjson
Flag Type Default Purpose
--md bool true Markdown output
--html bool false HTML output (overrides --md)
--check bool false Check for regressions (exit 1 on regression)
--last int 0 Only consider last N entries (0 = all)
--threshold-convergence int 20 Convergence regression threshold (%)
--threshold-throughput int 20 Throughput regression threshold (%)
--threshold-p99 int 30 P99 latency regression threshold (%)

Exit codes: 0 = no regression (or report mode), 1 = regression detected or error.


Runtime Commands

Commands sent to the running daemon. Access through three entry points:

Entry Access Usage
ze cli Full (interactive) Exploration, monitoring
ze show <cmd> Read-only Scripting, dashboards

Note: Some ze show subcommands run locally without a daemon (version, bgp decode/encode, env, schema, yang, completion). These are dispatched via local handlers before attempting SSH connection.

ze cli accepts -c <command> for single-shot execution and --format <format> (default: yaml).

Peer Selector

Many commands take a peer <selector> argument:

Selector Example Description
* peer * All peers
Name peer upstream1 By configured peer name
IP address peer 10.0.0.1 By peer IP
ASN peer as65001 By remote ASN, case-insensitive (matches all peers with that ASN)
Glob peer 192.168.*.* Pattern match
Exclusion peer !10.0.0.1 All except this peer
ASN exclusion peer !as65001 All except peers with this ASN

Peer Commands

Command Access Purpose
show peer list read-only List all peers (IP, ASN, state, uptime)
show peer detail <sel> read-only Detailed peer info (config, state, counters, prefix-updated date, prefix-stale warning)
show peer capabilities <sel> read-only Negotiated capabilities
show peer statistics <sel> read-only Per-peer update statistics with rates
show peer history <sel> read-only FSM transition history
show summary read-only BGP summary table (all peers)
show summary <afi/safi> read-only Per-family summary: filter to peers that negotiated this AFI/SAFI. Shorthands ipv4, ipv6, l2vpn expand to ipv4/unicast, ipv6/unicast, l2vpn/evpn. Unknown or un-negotiated families reject with the list of families currently negotiated on this daemon. Response adds family + peers-in-family; peers-established is the filtered count
peer <sel> pause write Pause read loop (flow control)
peer <sel> resume write Resume read loop
peer <sel> teardown [<code>] [<msg>] write Graceful close with NOTIFICATION
peer <sel> flush write Block until all queued updates for peer are on the wire

Policy Test (Dry-Run)

Command Access Purpose
show policy test peer <sel> export update <HEX> read-only Dry-run the peer's configured export chain against a BGP UPDATE
show policy test peer <sel> import update <HEX> read-only Dry-run the peer's configured import chain against a BGP UPDATE
show policy test peer <sel> export filter <NAME> update <HEX> read-only Dry-run a single named filter against a BGP UPDATE

The peer selector comes first (peer <sel>, matching show bgp peer <sel> ...), then the direction (import/export), then optional filter <NAME>, then update <HEX>.

<HEX> is a hex-encoded full BGP UPDATE message (including the 19-byte header). The 0x prefix is optional.

Optional: source-asn4 false to test with ASN2 encoding context (default: ASN4). This is what makes AS4_PATH (RFC 6793) the active path carrier.

Output is structured JSON with fields: direction, peer, action (accept/reject/modify), trace (per-filter decisions), text-before, text-after, changed-attrs, and wire-changes (wire-level attribute ops such as AS4_PATH suppressed that the flat filter text cannot express).

This command does not forward routes, update the RIB, populate cache, or mutate peer state.

Set Commands

Command Access Purpose
set system file-descriptors <N|max> write Raise process FD soft limit (Linux only; max sets to hard limit)
set bgp peer <name> with <config> write Create peer with configuration
set bgp peer <sel> save write Save running peers to config

Peer Config Keys

Config keys are parsed from the YANG peer-fields schema via ParseInlineArgs. Container prefixes (remote, local) scope sub-keys. The parser walks the YANG tree to determine how many tokens each field consumes (leaf = name + value, container = name + recurse into children).

Key Value Required Description
remote ip IP address Yes Peer remote IP address
remote as ASN (uint32) Yes Peer AS number
local as ASN (uint32) No Local AS override
local ip IP address No Local IP for this session
router-id IPv4 address No Router ID override
timer hold-time seconds (0-86400) No Hold time (default: 90)
timer connect-retry seconds No Connect retry interval (default: 120)
remote connect true/false No Initiate outbound connections (default: true)
local accept true/false No Accept inbound connections (default: true)
description text No Peer description
link-local IPv6 address No Link-local next-hop
port 1-65535 No Per-peer listen port
group-updates enable/disable No UPDATE grouping

Example: set bgp peer upstream1 with remote ip 10.0.0.1 remote as 65001 local as 65000 timer hold-time 90 remote connect false

Del Commands

Command Access Purpose
del bgp peer <sel> write Remove peer

Update Commands

Command Access Purpose
update bgp peer <sel> prefix write Update prefix maximums from PeeringDB

Route Injection

peer <sel> update text <attrs> nlri <family> <op> <prefixes>
peer <sel> update hex <hex-data>
peer <sel> update b64 <b64-data>
peer <sel> raw [<type>] <encoding> <data>

Text format attributes:

Attribute Syntax
origin origin set igp / egp / incomplete
nhop nhop set 192.168.1.1 or nhop set self
med med set 100
local-preference local-preference set 200
as-path as-path set [ 65001 65002 ]
community community set [ 65000:100 no-export ]
large-community large-community set [ 65000:1:1 ]
extended-community extended-community set [ rt:65000:100 ]

NLRI operations: nlri <family> add <prefixes>, nlri <family> del <prefixes>, nlri <family> eor.

RIB Commands

Command Access Purpose
show bgp rib status read-only RIB summary (peer count, routes, families)
show bgp rib read-only Stream Adj-RIB-In and Adj-RIB-Out routes
show bgp rib | received read-only Stream received routes only
show bgp rib | advertised read-only Stream advertised routes only
show bgp rib | peer <selector> read-only Stream routes for one peer selector
show bgp rib best read-only Best-path per prefix
show bgp rib best status read-only Best-path computation status
rib clear in <selector> write Clear Adj-RIB-In (* for all peers)
rib clear out <selector> [family] write Regenerate and re-advertise Adj-RIB-Out (* for all peers, optional family filter)
rib inject <peer> <family> <prefix> [attrs...] write Insert route into Adj-RIB-In as if received from peer
rib withdraw <peer> <family> <prefix> write Remove route from Adj-RIB-In
rib rpf <family> <source-addr> read RPF lookup: longest-prefix-match against Loc-RIB for CIDR families

Healthcheck Commands

Command Access Purpose
healthcheck show read-only JSON summary of all healthcheck probes
healthcheck show <name> read-only Detailed status of a single probe
healthcheck reset <name> write Withdraw route, reset FSM to INIT, immediate re-check. Error if DISABLED.

BMP (RFC 7854)

Command Access Purpose
show bmp sessions read-only Show active BMP receiver sessions (router address, sysName, uptime)
show bmp peers read-only Show monitored BGP peers (AS, BGP ID, up/down status)
show bmp collectors read-only Show BMP sender collector connection status
show bmp rib read-only Show BMP-monitored routes

Commit (Atomic Updates)

Command Access Purpose
commit start <name> write Begin named update window
commit end <name> write Flush queued updates
commit eor <name> write Flush updates and send End-of-RIB
commit show <name> read-only Show queue status
commit rollback <name> write Discard queued updates
commit withdraw <name> route <prefix> write Withdraw prefix from window
commit list read-only List active commits

Commit names must not collide with action keywords (list, start, end, eor, rollback, show, withdraw). The old grammar commit <name> <action> is accepted with a deprecation warning but does not work when the name equals a keyword.

Cache Commands

Command Access Purpose
cache list read-only List cached message IDs
cache retain <id> write Pin in cache (prevent eviction)
cache release <id> write Release from cache
cache expire <id> write Remove immediately
cache forward <id> <peer-sel> write Re-inject UPDATE to peer(s)

Batch operations: cache forward <id1>,<id2> <selector>.

Static Routes

Command Access Purpose
show static read-only Show all configured static routes in JSON: prefix, action, next-hops with address/weight/BFD status, metric, tag

The static route plugin programs routes directly to the kernel (netlink multipath) or VPP. It auto-loads when the config contains a static { } section. See Static Routes Guide.

Sysctl (Kernel Tunables)

Command Access Purpose
sysctl show read-only Show all active sysctl keys with value, source (config/transient/default), and persistence
sysctl list read-only List all known sysctl keys with descriptions and types
sysctl describe <key> read-only Show detail for one key: description, type, range, current value, source
sysctl set <key> <value> write Set a transient sysctl value (overrides defaults, blocked by config)
sysctl list-profiles read-only List all registered sysctl profiles (built-in and user-defined) with key counts
sysctl describe-profile <name> read-only Show detail for one profile: description, all key/value pairs

The sysctl plugin manages kernel tunables with three-layer precedence: config (persistent, from YANG) wins over transient (CLI sysctl set), which wins over defaults (plugin-declared via EventBus). Original values are restored on clean daemon stop.

Config example: sysctl { setting net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding { value 1; } }

Named profiles group co-dependent tunables for common use cases. Apply them per interface unit: sysctl-profile [ dsr hardened ]. Built-in profiles: dsr, router, hardened, multihomed, proxy. User-defined profiles declared in sysctl { profile <name> { ... } }.

When fib-kernel is loaded, it automatically enables IPv4 and IPv6 forwarding as defaults.

L2TPv2 (Operational)

Command Access Purpose
show l2tp run L2TP subsystem summary (tunnel/session counts)
show l2tp tunnels run List all active L2TP tunnels
show l2tp tunnel <tid> run Show one tunnel by local tunnel ID
show l2tp sessions run List all active L2TP sessions
show l2tp session <sid> run Show one session by local session ID
show l2tp statistics run Protocol counters
show l2tp listeners run Bound UDP listener endpoints
show l2tp config run Effective runtime configuration
show l2tp observer <sid> run Per-session event ring snapshot (timestamps, types, RTT, reasons)
show l2tp observer all run Summary of all active session event rings
show l2tp cqm <login> run Per-login CQM bucket history (100s echo RTT/loss aggregates)
show l2tp cqm summary run Aggregate CQM state across all tracked logins
show l2tp echo <login> run Current echo state for a login (RTT, loss ratio, interval)
show l2tp reliable <tid> run Reliable transport window state (Ns, Nr, cwnd, retransmits)
clear l2tp tunnel teardown <tid> run Send StopCCN for one tunnel
clear l2tp tunnel teardown-all run Send StopCCN for every tunnel
clear l2tp session teardown <sid> [reason <text...>] [cause <code>] run Send CDN for one session with optional audit reason and disconnect cause
clear l2tp session teardown-all run Send CDN for every session

The clear l2tp session teardown command accepts optional keyword arguments:

  • reason <text...>: free-text audit reason, recorded in the per-session event ring
  • cause <code>: RADIUS Disconnect-Cause value (uint16), recorded alongside the reason

PPPoE Commands

Command Mode Description
show pppoe run PPPoE subsystem summary (session/interface counts)
show pppoe sessions run List all active PPPoE sessions
show pppoe session <sid> run Show one session by session ID
show pppoe statistics run Per-interface session counts and limits
show pppoe interfaces run Configured PPPoE access interfaces

L2TPv2 Web UI

The web interface at /l2tp provides session management and CQM graphing.

URL Method Purpose
/l2tp GET Session list with sortable columns
/l2tp/<sid> GET Session detail: state, PPP options, CQM chart, event timeline, disconnect
/l2tp/<login>/samples GET CQM buckets as columnar JSON (uPlot data shape)
/l2tp/<login>/samples.csv GET CQM buckets as CSV download
/l2tp/<login>/samples/stream GET SSE stream pushing new CQM buckets every 100s
/l2tp/<sid>/disconnect POST Disconnect session (requires reason form field; optional cause)

Disconnect is gated by authz: the clear prefix is denied in the built-in read-only profile. The CQM chart uses vendored uPlot rendered client-side with CSS color variables (--color-l2tp-established, --color-l2tp-negotiating, --color-l2tp-down).

L2TPv2 (Offline Tools)

Command Access Purpose
l2tp decode [--pretty] offline Decode a hex L2TPv2 control message on stdin and emit JSON on stdout

ze l2tp decode runs without a daemon. Input is ASCII hex (whitespace allowed); output is a JSON object with a parsed header and an avps array. Each AVP carries its vendor, numeric type, RFC 2661 catalog name (when vendor 0), flag booleans, and the raw value as lowercase hex. Use --pretty for indented output.

Example:

echo c8020044... | ze l2tp decode --pretty

Exit code is 0 on successful parse, 1 on invalid hex, truncated header, or malformed AVPs; stderr carries the reason.

Event Monitoring

bgp monitor [peer <sel>] [event <types>] [direction <dir>]
Filter Values
peer IP address, *
event update, open, notification, keepalive, refresh, state, negotiated (comma-separated)
direction sent, received

Streaming command: use in interactive ze cli or via SSH.

Netlink Monitoring

monitor system netlink [route|link|address|all]

Stream kernel netlink events as one JSON line per event. Replaces ip monitor on gokrazy appliances. Linux only.

Group Events
route Route add/delete with prefix, gateway, table, protocol
link Interface up/down/create/delete with name, state, MTU, MAC
address Address add/remove with CIDR, interface
all All of the above (default when no group specified)

Streaming command: use in interactive ze cli or via SSH. Press Esc to stop.

Interface Rate Monitoring

monitor interface rate [<name>]

Stream per-second interface rate data as JSON lines (one line per tick, 1s interval). Without a name, streams all interfaces sorted by name. With a name, streams only that interface.

Each JSON line contains: name, rx-bps, tx-bps, rx-pps, tx-pps, and the raw kernel stats snapshot (8 counters). Rate values are computed from raw kernel counter deltas; counter wraps produce 0 rather than negative spikes.

Streaming command: use in interactive ze cli or via SSH. Press Esc to stop.

Metrics

Command Access Purpose
metrics show read-only Prometheus text format metrics
metrics list read-only List metric names
metrics pool read-only Per-attribute-pool occupancy, dedup rates, and aggregate totals (13 BGP pools)

Logging

Command Access Purpose
log show read-only List subsystems with current log levels
log set <subsystem> <level> write Set log level at runtime

Levels: debug, info, warn, err, disabled.

Plugin Configuration (from plugin context)

Command Access Purpose
bgp plugin encoding <json|text> write Set event encoding
bgp plugin format <hex|base64|parsed|full> write Set wire format display
bgp plugin ack <sync|async> write Set ACK timing

Discovery

Command Access Purpose
help read-only List available subcommands
command-list read-only List all commands with descriptions
command-help <name> read-only Detailed help for a command
event-list read-only List available event types

Interactive CLI Features

Inside ze cli:

Feature Syntax
Pipe: filter lines show peer list | match established
Pipe: count show peer list | count
Pipe: table format show bgp rib | table
Pipe: text format show peer list | text
Pipe: JSON pretty show peer list | json
Pipe: JSON compact show peer list | json compact
Pipe: NDJSON show peer list | ndjson
Pipe: YAML show peer list | yaml
Pipe: reverse DNS show traceroute 8.8.8.8 | resolve
Pipe: ASN lookup show traceroute 8.8.8.8 | origin
Pipe: streaming log monitor traceroute 8.8.8.8 | log
Pipe: disable paging show peer list | no-more
Set default format set cli format json (session override)
Show current format set cli format (no argument)
Tab completion Contextual command/argument completion

Signal Handling

The daemon handles these Unix signals directly:

Signal Effect
SIGHUP Reload configuration
SIGTERM / SIGINT Graceful shutdown
SIGUSR1 Dump status to stderr

ze-chaos

Chaos monkey for testing Ze BGP route server propagation.

AI Integration Flags

Flag Description
--mcp <addr:port> Start chaos MCP server for AI queries (e.g. :8001)
--ze-mcp <port> Inject Ze MCP server port into generated config
--ai-help Print chaos MCP tool definitions as JSON and exit
ze-chaos --mcp :8001 --web :8000 --peers 4  # MCP + web dashboard
ze-chaos --ze-mcp 9718 --peers 4             # Inject MCP into Ze config
ze-chaos --ai-help                           # Print tool schemas