question Re: Can we create a NiFi workflow and operate using CLI instead of GUI? in Archives of Support Questions (Read Only)

Can we create a NiFi workflow and operate using CLI instead of GUI?

nshawa — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:34:36 GMT

One of our prospects is looking at NiFi, they cant have GUI operated tools as they need everything to be scripted for ease of operations, can we create and manage NiFi flows with CLI without the need for GUI?

Re: Can we create a NiFi workflow and operate using CLI instead of GUI?

abajwa — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 11:25:41 GMT

Its probably possible (because Nifi is REST API based) but in general, the recommendation is to create a template from existing flow ahead of time and importing into Nifi on your desired cluster (that would be easier to automate than automating the building of the whole flow)

Re: Can we create a NiFi workflow and operate using CLI instead of GUI?

andrewg — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:05:48 GMT

There's a difference between modifying your flow in-flight, realtime (possible, but requires some effort from the developer), and automating deployment for operations. Templates provide a middle ground, whereas one doesn't need to wire everything programmatically, but rather piece together large chunks of the flow only.

Today, you can simply set up the flow the way you need and bundle the complete conf/flow.xml.gz file together with a newly deployed instance. This way you deploy NiFi with a complete flow already deployed.

The operations side will see many improvements going forward, but today these are the options.