Installation

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 22.12.0 (the CLI is ESM and uses modern Node APIs).
• git on your PATH (used for repo creation, commits, template fetch).
• A running Redis if you intend to generate clients from live services or run services locally.
• Optional, per feature:
  • An SSH key or nothing special — templates are fetched over public HTTPS by default.
  • npm-check-updates — installed automatically by imq up if missing.
  • Docker — only if you enable service dockerization.

Install globally

npm i -g @imqueue/cli

Verify:

imq --version
imq --help

Running imq with no arguments prints the command list.

Upgrading

npm i -g @imqueue/cli@latest

On every interactive run the CLI checks npm for a newer release and offers to self-update. To disable that check (e.g. in CI or slow networks):

export IMQ_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1

Upgrading from 3.x

The three standalone shell tools were folded into the imq binary. Update any scripts or aliases:

All options are unchanged. Your existing ~/.imq/config.json continues to work untouched — see Configuration.

Shell completions

The CLI can install completion scripts for bash and zsh:

imq completions on     # append the completion block to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
imq completions off    # remove it

Then reload your shell or source ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc). The shell is detected from your login shell, not from transient ZSH_* variables, so it behaves correctly inside subshells.

Files the CLI creates

Override the base directory (useful for sandboxing or CI) with:

export IMQ_CLI_HOME=/some/where   # ~/.imq becomes /some/where/.imq

Uninstall

npm r -g @imqueue/cli
rm -rf ~/.imq            # optional: remove cached templates, config, logs