Print the help information for surreal db, or for one of its subcommands.
surreal db help and surreal help print different things. surreal db help is the database's own help, described on this page, because everything after db is forwarded to the database. surreal help and surreal --help are the launcher's help, which lists the components and the commands that manage what is installed. See Launcher help.
surreal db help [COMMAND]surreal db <COMMAND> --helpShow the command-line help information
To see the general help information for the database, run surreal db help without any further arguments. This command lists the subcommands of surreal db.
surreal db helpThe output of the above command:
.d8888b. 888 8888888b. 888888b.
d88P Y88b 888 888 'Y88b 888 '88b
Y88b. 888 888 888 888 .88P
'Y888b. 888 888 888d888 888d888 .d88b. 8888b. 888 888 888 8888888K.
'Y88b. 888 888 888P' 888P' d8P Y8b '88b 888 888 888 888 'Y88b
'888 888 888 888 888 88888888 .d888888 888 888 888 888 888
Y88b d88P Y88b 888 888 888 Y8b. 888 888 888 888 .d88P 888 d88P
'Y8888P' 'Y88888 888 888 'Y8888 'Y888888 888 8888888P' 8888888P'
To get started using SurrealDB, and for guides on connecting to and building applications
on top of SurrealDB, check out the SurrealDB documentation (https://surrealdb.com/docs).
If you have questions or ideas, join the SurrealDB community (https://surrealdb.com/community).
If you find a bug, submit an issue on GitHub (https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/issues).
We would love it if you could star the repository (https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb).
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Usage: surreal [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>
Commands:
start Start the database server
import Import a SurrealQL script into an existing database
export Export an existing database as a SurrealQL script
version Output the command-line tool and remote server version information
upgrade Upgrade to the latest stable version
sql Start an SQL REPL in your terminal with pipe support
mcp Start the MCP server over stdio for AI assistant integration
ml Manage SurrealML models within an existing database
module Manage and execute WASM modules
is-ready Check if the SurrealDB server is ready to accept connections [aliases: isready]
validate Validate SurrealQL query files
fix Fix database storage issues
v2 Run commands in version 2 of the database for backwards compatibility
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Options:
--online-version-check Whether to allow web check for client version upgrades at start [env: SURREAL_ONLINE_VERSION_CHECK=]
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
Logging:
-l, --log <LOG> The logging level for the command-line tool [env: SURREAL_LOG=] [default: info] [possible
values: none, full, error, warn, info, debug, trace]
--log-format <LOG_FORMAT> The format for terminal log output [env: SURREAL_LOG_FORMAT=] [default: text] [possible
values: text, json]
--log-socket <LOG_SOCKET> Send logs to the specified host:port [env: SURREAL_LOG_SOCKET=]
--log-file-level <LOG_FILE_LEVEL> Override the logging level for file output [env: SURREAL_LOG_FILE_LEVEL=] [possible values:
none, full, error, warn, info, debug, trace]
--log-otel-level <LOG_OTEL_LEVEL> Override the logging level for OpenTelemetry output [env: SURREAL_LOG_OTEL_LEVEL=] [possible
values: none, full, error, warn, info, debug, trace]
--log-socket-level <LOG_SOCKET_LEVEL> Override the logging level for unix socket output [env: SURREAL_LOG_SOCKET_LEVEL=] [possible
values: none, full, error, warn, info, debug, trace]
--log-socket-format <LOG_SOCKET_FORMAT> The format for socket output [env: SURREAL_LOG_SOCKET_FORMAT=] [default: text] [possible
values: text, json]
--log-file-enabled Whether to enable log file output [env: SURREAL_LOG_FILE_ENABLED=]
--log-file-path <LOG_FILE_PATH> The directory where log files will be stored [env: SURREAL_LOG_FILE_PATH=] [default: logs]
--log-file-name <LOG_FILE_NAME> The name of the log file [env: SURREAL_LOG_FILE_NAME=] [default: surrealdb.log]
--log-file-format <LOG_FILE_FORMAT> The format for log file output [env: SURREAL_LOG_FILE_FORMAT=] [default: text] [possible
values: text, json]
--log-file-rotation <LOG_FILE_ROTATION> The log file rotation interval [env: SURREAL_LOG_FILE_ROTATION=] [default: daily] [possible
values: daily, hourly, never]The upgrade entry appears in the database's own list, but surreal db upgrade is refused. Use surreal upgrade db.
Launcher help
surreal help and surreal --help print the launcher's help. It lists the components (db, cloud), the commands that manage what is installed (version, install, upgrade, use, uninstall), and the +VERSION option that runs another version for one command. Run surreal <COMPONENT> help, such as surreal cloud help, for the help of a component. The --no-banner option, or SURREAL_CLI_NO_BANNER, prints the launcher help without the banner. See the launcher reference for each of these commands.
Getting help on individual commands
For individual commands, such as surreal db start and surreal db sql, a help prompt can be displayed by adding the --help flag. This flag overrides all other flags, and thus can be added to the end of any command regardless of length.
surreal db start --help
surreal db start --user root --pass secret --log debug --help