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Kotlin CLI

The Kotlin CLI is a command-line tool to build, run, test, and package your project without an IDE. It is useful both locally and in CI/CD pipelines.

Installation

Install the Kotlin CLI using one of the methods below. After installation, the kotlin command will be available on your PATH.

via SDKMAN

sdk install kotlintoolchain

Note

The first time you run the Kotlin CLI, it will take some time to download the Kotlin Toolchain distribution. Subsequent runs will be faster, as the downloaded files will be cached locally.

If you just installed via the script, restart your shell (or run export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" on Linux/macOS) before using kotlin.

via installer script

The installer script downloads the Kotlin CLI wrapper and places it in ~/.local/bin (on Linux and macOS) or an equivalent location on Windows. It also updates your shell profile to add that directory to your PATH, if needed.

curl -fsSL https://kotl.in/install.sh | sh

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm 'https://kotl.in/install.ps1' | iex"
IntelliJ IDEA can take care of this for you

New projects created using the IntelliJ IDEA wizard will already contain the wrapper scripts. Also, if you create a module.yaml file in a blank project, IntelliJ IDEA will offer to set up the wrapper scripts for you. In that case, you can use ./kotlin from the project root without a global installation.

Exploring Kotlin CLI commands

The root kotlin command and all subcommands support the -h (or --help) option to explore what is possible:

kotlin --help       # shows the available commands and general options
kotlin build --help # shows the options for the 'build' command specifically

Useful commands:

  • kotlin init to create a new Kotlin project
  • kotlin build to compile and link all code in the project
  • kotlin run to run your application
  • kotlin test to run tests in the project
  • kotlin show (modules|settings|dependencies|tasks) to introspect the project's configuration
  • kotlin clean to remove the project's build output and caches

Try it out!

Create a new project using the kotlin init command and select the JVM console application template.

Then build and run the application using kotlin run.

Tab-completion

If you’re using bash, zsh, or fish, you can generate a completion script to source as part of your shell’s configuration, to get tab completion for Kotlin CLI commands.

First, generate the completion script using the generate-completion command, specifying the shell you use:

kotlin generate-completion bash > ~/kotlin-completion.sh

kotlin generate-completion zsh > ~/kotlin-completion.sh

kotlin generate-completion fish > ~/kotlin-completion.sh

Then load the script in your shell (this can be added to .bashrc, .zshrc, or similar configuration files to load it automatically):

source ~/kotlin-completion.sh

You should now have tab completion available for Kotlin CLI subcommands, options, and option values.

Updating the Kotlin Toolchain to a newer version

Run kotlin update to update the Kotlin CLI scripts and the toolchain distribution to the latest released version. Use the --dev option if you want to try the bleeding edge dev build of the Kotlin Toolchain (no guarantees are made on these builds).

See kotlin update -h for more information about the available options.

Don't forget to regenerate your tab-completion script, if you have one.