CLI client

Notifly-CLI is a small command-line utility notifly for sending messages to your channel directly from the terminal, cron jobs, and shell scripts. It stores the token and server URL in a config, can read the message from stdin, and can watch the output of an arbitrary command (watch) and send updates.

The utility is not required to send notifications — the same can be done with curl (see REST API). The CLI simply saves you from repeating the token and URL in every command.

Note

The CLI sends messages using an App token (prefix A). This token is allowed only to send messages to a single channel. A Client token (C) will not work here — the utility explicitly expects an application token 15 characters long. You can create an App token in the admin at app.notifly.ru.

Installation

Prebuilt binary

Download the binary for your OS and make it executable:

# Linux x86-64
curl -Lo notifly https://github.com/notifly/cli/releases/latest/download/notifly-cli-linux-amd64
chmod +x notifly

Check that it works:

$ notifly version
Version:   2.2.0
Commit:    95cc125e39f805a1369b0c746c8bf3af15797a57
BuildDate: 2025-09-25-16:27:04

If you wish, place the binary in a directory on your $PATH:

sudo mv notifly /usr/local/bin/notifly

Build from source

You need Go. In the cli/ directory build the binary directly:

go build -o notifly cli.go

Or use make build — it will build a set of binaries for all platforms (Linux/macOS/Windows, amd64/386/arm64/arm) into the build/ subdirectory.

Docker

There is a Dockerfile included (minimal Alpine image). Build the image and run notifly in a container, mounting the config:

docker build -t notifly/cli .

docker run -it -v "$PWD/cli.json:/etc/gotify/cli.json" \
  notifly/cli:latest push -p 5 "Тест из Notifly CLI"

Note

The image does not include a working directory with a config, so the config is mounted into one of the lookup paths — /etc/gotify/cli.json (see Where the config is stored). Alternatively, pass the token and URL directly to the command via --token/--url.

Commands

notifly init        # мастер настройки (запишет конфиг)
notifly version     # показать версию (алиас: v)
notifly config      # показать текущий конфиг
notifly push        # отправить сообщение (алиас: p)
notifly watch       # следить за выводом команды и слать изменения
notifly help        # помощь по командам (алиас: h)

Help for a specific command: notifly help push, notifly help watch.

Setup: notifly init

The easiest way to get started is the init wizard. It will ask for the server URL, token and default priority, check the connection and write the config.

$ notifly init
Notifly URL: https://notifly.ru
Notifly v2.7.4@2025-09-25-16:27:04

Configure an application token
1. Enter an application-token
2. Create an application token (with user/pass)
Enter 1 or 2: 1
Application Token: A4ZudDRdLT40L5X

Default Priority [0-10]: 6

Written config to: /home/user/.gotify/cli.json

At the token choice step there are two options:

• 1 — enter an existing App token. Get it from the admin. The token must be exactly 15 characters; the utility will immediately verify it by sending a test message to the channel.
• 2 — create an App token using a username/password. You enter a username and password (Basic Auth), the CLI creates an application with the specified name and description and saves the returned token. The username and password are not saved — only the resulting token is stored.

The default priority must be a number from 0 to 10.

Where the config is stored

init will offer to choose a path, and other commands search for the config in these locations (the first found wins):

1. ./cli.json (next to the current directory);
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gotify/cli.json (usually ~/.config/gotify/cli.json);
3. ~/.gotify/cli.json;
4. /etc/gotify/cli.json (except on Windows).

Manual config

The config is just JSON. You can create it manually without running the wizard:

{
  "token": "A4ZudDRdLT40L5X",
  "url": "https://notifly.ru",
  "defaultPriority": 6
}

Field	Description	Example
token	App token (Client token will not work)	A4ZudDRdLT40L5X
url	URL of your Notifly server	https://notifly.ru
defaultPriority	Default priority (0 if not set)	6

To see which config is being used now:

$ notifly config
Used Config: /home/user/.gotify/cli.json
URL: https://notifly.ru
Default Priority: 6
Token: A4ZudDRdLT40L5X

Sending messages: notifly push

The message text can be provided as an argument or via stdin:

notifly push my message
notifly push "моё сообщение"
echo "моё сообщение" | notifly push
notifly push < somefile

Caution

You cannot provide the text both as an argument and via stdin at the same time — the utility will exit with an error. Use one method only. If the text is empty in both places — that’s also an error.

Title and priority:

notifly push -t "Deploy" -p 10 "Production deployed"

Flags for the push command:

Flag	Purpose	Default
-p, --priority	Message priority	from defaultPriority
-t, --title	Title (if empty — application name is used)	application name
--token	Override App token (env: GOTIFY_TOKEN)	from config
--url	Override server URL	from config
-q, --quiet	Print nothing on success	off
--contentType	Message content-type, e.g. text/markdown (see msgextras)	—
--clickUrl	URL opened when the notification is clicked (see msgextras)	—
--bigImageUrl	URL of an image shown in the notification (see msgextras)	—
--disable-unescape-backslash	Do not unescape \n and \t (leave them as literal text)	unescapes

If -p is not specified, defaultPriority from the config is used; if that is absent — priority 0 is used.

Overriding token and URL

You don’t have to keep a config — you can pass the token and URL directly on the command line or via the GOTIFY_TOKEN environment variable:

notifly push --url https://notifly.ru --token A4ZudDRdLT40L5X "without config"

GOTIFY_TOKEN=A4ZudDRdLT40L5X notifly push --url https://notifly.ru "from env"

Markdown and line breaks

By default notifly unescapes \n and \t into real line breaks and tabs. This is convenient for multi-line messages provided as a single-line argument:

notifly push -t "Report" "Line 1\nLine 2\twith tab"

To keep \n and \t as literal text — add --disable-unescape-backslash.

Markdown is enabled via --contentType:

notifly push --contentType text/markdown -t "Release" "**v2.0** is ready — [changelog](https://notifly.ru)"

Clickable notifications and images

notifly push -t "Build failed" \
  --clickUrl https://ci.example.com/build/42 \
  --bigImageUrl https://ci.example.com/build/42/graph.png \
  "Job #42 finished with an error"

More about these fields — see the Message extras page.

Watching a command: notifly watch

watch periodically runs the given command and as soon as its output has changed compared to the previous run, sends the new output to the channel. Useful for simple ad-hoc monitoring without a separate service.

notifly watch "curl -s https://api.example.com/status | jq '.state'"

By default the command runs every 2 seconds via sh -c. The title, if not set, defaults to the command itself.

Flags for the watch command:

Flag	Purpose	Default
-n, --interval	Polling interval in seconds (fractional allowed)	2
-p, --priority	Priority	from defaultPriority
-x, --exec	What to use to execute the command	sh -c
-t, --title	Title (if empty — the command text is used)	command
--token	Override App token (env: GOTIFY_TOKEN)	from config
--url	Override server URL	from config
-o, --output	Detail level of the message body: short, default, long	default

--output modes:

• short — only the new output, without wrappers;
• default — the new output wrapped in == BEGIN NEW OUTPUT == … == END NEW OUTPUT ==;
• long — both old and new output (full diff in OLD/NEW blocks).

Example: watch the number of containers every 30 seconds and send a long diff:

notifly watch -n 30 -o long -t "docker ps" "docker ps -q | wc -l"

Note

If on an iteration the command fails (non-zero exit code) or does not finish within the interval (timeout), a line !== <error> ==! is appended to the output, and such a change is also sent to the channel. This way you learn not only about the change in result but also about the command failing.

TLS and self-signed certificates

If the server uses a self-signed certificate, there are environment variables:

# completely disable TLS verification (insecure)
export NOTIFLY_SKIP_VERIFY_TLS=True

# or specify a custom root CA / pinned certificate
export SSL_CERT_FILE=/path/to/cert.pem

Alternative without the CLI: curl

Any send performed by the CLI can be reproduced with plain curl — it’s the same REST API:

curl -X POST "$NOTIFLY_URL/message" \
  -H "X-Notifly-Key: A4ZudDRdLT40L5X" \
  -F "title=Деплой" \
  -F "priority=10" \
  -F "message=Прод выкатился"

REST API

The CLI works over the same public API as everything else. Authorization — the X-Notifly-Key header with an App token (A…).

Method	Path	Purpose	Token
POST	/message	Send a message to the channel	App token
GET	/version	Server version (used by the init wizard)	—

Body for POST /message (JSON or form-data): message (required), title, priority (0–10), extras (for example client::display.contentType, client::notification.click.url, client::notification.bigImageUrl). Details — on the Sending messages and Message extras pages.