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Options

Options, also known as flags, provide additional, optional functionality to use with a CLI command. To see all valid options for a command, run it with --help or visit the GitHub repository.

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Getting help

Add --help to any command to see its usage, arguments, and available flags. 
box folders --help

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Controlling output format

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JSON output

Use --json to return the full API response as structured JSON. This is useful for scripting or when you need to inspect the complete response. 
box files:get 123456 --json

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CSV output

Use --csv to return results as a CSV. This pairs well with --save to produce reports you can open in a spreadsheet. 
box folders:items 0 --csv --save

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Filtering fields

Use --fields to specify only the fields you need in the response. This reduces output noise and can speed up calls that would otherwise return a large number of fields. 
box folders:items 0 --fields id,name,login

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Saving output

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Save to the default reports folder

Use --save to write output to the default reports directory. 
box folders:items 0 --csv --save

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Save to a custom path

Use --save-to-file-path to override the default location and write output to a specific location. 
box folders:items 0 --json --save-to-file-path ./exports/users.json

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Scripting and automation

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Skip confirmation prompts

Use --yes to automatically answer yes to any confirmation prompt. This is useful when running the CLI in scripts or automated pipelines. 
box folders:delete 123456 --yes

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Disable color

Use --no-color to strip ANSI color codes from output. This is recommended when capturing output in log files or CI environments where color codes can corrupt output. 
box folders:items 0 --no-color

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Debugging

Use --verbose to print detailed output including request and response metadata. Add this flag when troubleshooting unexpected errors. 
box folders:items 0 --verbose

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Using a specific token

Use --token to authenticate a single command with a specific access token, overriding the configured default environment. This is useful when testing tokens or running one-off calls without switching environments. 
box folders:items 0 --token YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN

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As-User header

Use the option to perform an action on behalf of another user. For example, the following command creates a folder called Example_Folder at the root level in user ID 123456’s account. 
box folders:create 0 Example_Folder --as-user=123456
Only Service Accounts and Admins are able to use the as-user header. If your application was not authorized with the necessary scopes or you configured your CLI to obtain a default token for another user, this call may fail. Add -v or --verbose to your command for verbose error logging.