Using the admin CLI

The command-line interface of Mastodon is an executable file called tootctl residing in the bin directory within the Mastodon root directory. You must specify which environment you intend to use whenever you execute it by specifying the RAILS_ENV environment variable. Unless you are a developer working on a local machine, you need to use RAILS_ENV=production. If you are sure that you will never need another environment (for development, testing, or staging), you can add it to your .bashrc file for convenience, e.g.:

echo "export RAILS_ENV=production" >> ~/.bashrc

If so, you won’t need to specify it each time inline. Otherwise, calls to tootctl will usually go like this, assuming that the Mastodon code is checked out in /home/mastodon/live:

cd /home/mastodon/live
RAILS_ENV=production bin/tootctl help

Base CLI

tootctl self-destruct

Erase this server from the federation by broadcasting account Delete activities to all known other servers. This allows a “clean exit” from running a Mastodon server, as it leaves next to no cache behind on other servers. This command is always interactive and requires confirmation twice.

No local data is actually deleted, because emptying the database or deleting the entire VPS is faster. If you run this command then continue to operate the instance anyway, then there will be a state mismatch that might lead to glitches and issues with federation.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
2.8.0 - added

tootctl --version

Show the version of the currently running Mastodon instance.

Version history:
2.7.0 - added

Accounts CLI

tootctl accounts rotate

Generate and broadcast new RSA keys, as part of security maintenance.

USERNAME

Local username for an account.

--all

Can be provided instead of USERNAME to rotate keys for all local accounts.

Version history:
2.5.0 - added

tootctl accounts create

Create a new user account with given USERNAME and provided --email.

USERNAME

Local username for the new account. required

--email EMAIL

Email address to be attached to the user. required

--confirmed

Skip sending the confirmation email and activate the account immediately.

--role ROLE

Define the new account’s custom role by providing the name of that Role. Default roles include Owner, Admin, and Moderator (case-sensitive).

--reattach

Reuse an old USERNAME after its account has been deleted.

--force Forcefully delete any existing account with this USERNAME and reattach the new account in place of the (just-deleted) account.

--skip-sign-in-token

Forcefully ensure that the user is never asked for an e-mailed security code.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added
4.0.0 - --role no longer takes hard-coded user, moderator, or admin roles. Specify the name of the custom Role instead (case-sensitive).

tootctl accounts modify

Modify a user account’s role, email, active status, approval mode, or 2FA requirement.

USERNAME

Local username for the account. required

--role ROLE

Define the existing account’s custom role by providing the name of that Role. Default roles include Owner, Admin, and Moderator (case-sensitive).

--remove-role

Removes the current role from the user.

--email EMAIL

Update the user’s email address to EMAIL.

--confirm

Skip confirmation email, when used with --email.

--disable

Lock USERNAME out of their account.

--enable

Unlock USERNAME’s account if it is currently disabled.

--approve

Approve USERNAME’s account, if you are/were in approval mode.

--disable-2fa

Remove additional factors and allow login with password.

--reset-password

Resets the password of the given account.

--skip-sign-in-token

Forcefully ensure that the user is never asked for an e-mailed security code.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added
3.1.2 - added --reset-password
4.0.0 - --role no longer takes hard-coded user, moderator, or admin roles. Specify the name of the custom Role instead (case-sensitive). Remove the current role with --remove-role.

tootctl accounts delete

Delete a user account with given USERNAME.

USERNAME

Local username for the new account. required

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

tootctl accounts backup

Request a backup for a user account with given USERNAME. The backup will be created in Sidekiq asynchronously, and the user will receive an email with a link to it once it’s done.

USERNAME

Local username for the new account. required

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

tootctl accounts cull

Remove remote accounts that no longer exist. Queries every single remote account in the database to determine if it still exists on the origin server, and if it doesn’t, then remove it from the database. Accounts that have had confirmed activity within the last week are excluded from the checks, in case the server is just down.

DOMAIN[...]

Optionally pass specific domains to cull

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added
2.8.0 - add --dry-run
3.5.0 - add ability to pass specific domains

tootctl accounts refresh

Refetch remote user data and files for one or multiple accounts.

USERNAME

username@domain for the remote account.

--all

Can be provided instead of USERNAME to refresh all remote accounts.

--domain DOMAIN

Can be provided instead of USERNAME. Operate only on remote accounts from this DOMAIN.

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

tootctl accounts merge

Merge two remote accounts into one. This is primarily meant to fix duplicates caused by other servers changing their domain. By default, this only works if the public key is the same, but this can be overridden.

FROM

username@domain for the remote account to be removed. required

TO

username@domain for the remote account to be kept. required

--force

Override the public key check.

Version history:
3.3.0 - added

tootctl accounts follow

Force all local accounts to follow a local account specified by username.

USERNAME

Local username. required

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

Version history:
2.7.0 - added
3.0.0 - now uses USERNAME instead of ACCT

tootctl accounts unfollow

Force all local accounts to unfollow an account specified by their address.

ACCT

username@domain address. required

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

Version history:
2.7.0 - added

tootctl accounts reset-relationships

Reset all follow and/or follower relationships for a local account.

USERNAME

Local username.

--follows

Force USERNAME to unfollow everyone, then re-follow them.

--followers

Remove all of USERNAME’s followers.

Version history:
2.8.0 - added

tootctl accounts approve

Approve new registrations when instance is in approval mode.

USERNAME

Local username.

--number N

Approve the N most recent registrations.

--all

Approve all pending registrations.

Version history:
2.8.0 - added

Cache CLI

tootctl cache clear

Clear out the cache storage.

Version history:
2.8.1 - added

tootctl cache recount

Update hard-cached counters of TYPE by counting referenced records from scratch. It may take a very long time to finish, depending on the size of the database. Accounts will have their follower, following, and status counts refreshed. Statuses will have their reply, boost, and favourite counts refreshed.

TYPE

Either accounts or statuses. required

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

Version history:
3.0.0 - added

Domains CLI

tootctl domains purge

Remove all accounts from a given DOMAIN without leaving behind any records. Unlike a suspension, if the DOMAIN still exists in the wild, it means the accounts could return if they are resolved again.

DOMAIN[...]

Domains to purge, separated by space.

--by-uri

Match domains in the actor URI rather than in the Webfinger address.

--limited-federation-mode

Can be provided instead of DOMAIN. Instead of purging from a single domain, all accounts from domains that are not allow-listed will be removed from the database. Use this after enabling limited federation mode and defining your allow-list.

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to 5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added
2.8.0 - add --whitelist-mode
2.9.0 - remove custom emoji as well
3.0.0 - accept multiple domains
3.2.0 - rename --whitelist-mode to --limited-federation-mode
3.5.0 - add --by-uri

tootctl domains crawl

Crawl the known fediverse by using Mastodon REST API endpoints that expose all known peers, and collect statistics from those peers, as long as those peers support those API endpoints. When no START is given, the command uses the server’s own database of known peers to seed the crawl. Returns total servers, total registered users, total active users in the last week, and total users joined in the last week.

START

Optionally start from a different domain name.

--exclude-suspended

Do not include instances that you have suspended in the output. Also includes any subdomains.

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=50.

--format FORMAT

Control how results are returned. summary will print a summary. domains will return a newline-delimited list of all discovered peers. json will dump aggregated raw data. Defaults to summary.

Version history:
2.7.0 - added
3.0.0 - add --exclude-suspended

Email domain blocks CLI

tootctl email-domain-blocks list

List all currently blocked email domains.

Version history:
3.2.0 - added

tootctl email-domain-blocks add

Add entries to the email domain blocklist.

DOMAIN[...]

Email domains to block, separated by space. required

--with-dns-records

If provided, will also lookup A, AAAA, and MX records and block them as well.

Version history:
3.2.0 - added

tootctl email-domain-blocks remove

Remove entries from the e-mail domain blocklist.

DOMAIN[...]

Email domains to unblock, separated by space. required

Version history:
3.2.0 - added

Emoji CLI

tootctl emoji export

Exports custom emoji to export.tar.gz at PATH.

PATH

Path to create a .tar.gz archive containing pictures. required

--overwrite

Overwrite any existing archive at PATH.

--category CATEGORY

Export only the specified CATEGORY. If not provided, will export all emoji.

Version history:
3.1.4 - added

tootctl emoji import

Imports custom emoji from a .tar.gz archive at a given path. The archive should contain PNG or GIF files no larger than 50KB, and the shortcode will be set equal to the filename minus the extension, with optional prefixes and/or suffixes.

PATH

Path to create a .tar.gz archive containing pictures. required

--prefix PREFIX

Add PREFIX to the beginning of generated shortcodes.

--suffix SUFFIX

Add SUFFIX to the end of generated shortcodes.

--overwrite

Instead of skipping existing emoji, replace them with any discovered emoji with the same shortcode.

--category CATEGORY

Group the processed emoji under CATEGORY in the picker.

--unlisted

Processed emoji will not be shown in the emoji picker, but will be usable only by their direct shortcode.

Version history:
2.5.0 - added

tootctl emoji purge

Remove all custom emoji.

--remote-only

If provided, remove only from remote domains.

Version history:
2.8.0 - added
3.1.0 - add --remote-only

Feeds CLI

tootctl feeds build

Build home and list feeds for one or all users. Feeds will be built from the database and cached in-memory with Redis. Mastodon manages home feeds for active users automatically.

USERNAME

Local username whose feeds will be regenerated.

--all

Can be provided instead of USERNAME to refresh all remote accounts.

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

tootctl feeds clear

Remove all home and list feeds from Redis.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

Maintenance CLI

tootctl maintenance fix-duplicates

Fix corrupted database indexes that may have been caused due to changing collation rules. Deletes or merges duplicate accounts, statuses, emojis, etc. Mastodon has to be stopped to run this task, which will take a long time and may be destructive. This is useful if your database indexes are corrupted because of issues such as https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Locale_data_changes.

Version history:
3.3.0 - added

Media CLI

tootctl media remove

Removes locally cached copies of media attachments, avatars or profile headers from other servers. By default, only media attachments are removed.

--days N

How old media attachments have to be before they are removed. In case of avatars and headers, how old the last webfinger request and update to the user has to be before they are removed. Defaults to 7.

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--prune-profiles

Instead of media attachments, remove locally cached copies of avatars and headers from other servers. Cannot be combined with --remove-headers.

--remove-headers

Instead of media attachments, remove locally cached copies of headers from other servers. Cannot be combined with --prune-profiles.

--include-follows

Override the default behavior of --prune-profiles and --remove-headers to remove locally cached copies of avatars (and headers) from other servers, irrespective of follow status (by default, they are only removed from accounts that are not followed by or following anyone locally). Can only be used with --prune-profiles or --remove-headers.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
2.5.0 - added
2.6.2 - show freed disk space 4.1.0 - added –prune-profiles, –remove-headers, and –include-follows.

tootctl media remove-orphans

Scans for files that do not belong to existing media attachments, and remove them. Please mind that some storage providers charge for the necessary API requests to list objects. Also, this operation requires iterating over every single file individually, so it will be slow.

--start-after

The Paperclip attachment key where the loop will start. Use this option if the command was interrupted before.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

--prefix

Traverse only a specific prefix of files in the system.

--fix-permissions

Sets S3 ACL to be default according to environment variables.

Version history:
3.1.0 - added
3.1.3 - added --prefix
3.3.0 - added --fix-permissions

tootctl media refresh

Refetch remote media attachments from other servers. You must specify the source of media attachments with either --status, --account, or --domain. If an attachment already exists in the database, it will not be overwritten unless you use --force.

--account ACCT

String username@domain handle of the account

--domain DOMAIN

FQDN string

--status ID

Local numeric ID of the status in the database.

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to 5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

--force

Force redownload the remote resource and overwrite the local attachment.

Version history:
3.0.0 - added
3.0.1 - add --force and skip already downloaded attachments by default

tootctl media usage

Calculate disk space consumed by Mastodon.

Version history: 3.0.1 - added

tootctl media lookup

Prompts for a media URL, then looks up the status where the media is displayed.

Version history:
3.1.0 - added

Preview Cards CLI

tootctl preview_cards remove

Remove local thumbnails for preview cards.

--days N

How old media attachments have to be before they are removed. Defaults to 180. (NOTE: it is not recommended to delete preview cards within the last 14 days, because preview cards will not be refetched unless the link is reposted after 2 weeks from last time.)

--concurrency N

The number of workers to use for this task. Defaults to N=5.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

--link

Only delete link-type preview cards; leave video and photo cards untouched.

Version history:
3.0.0 - added

Search CLI

tootctl search deploy

Create or update an Elasticsearch index and populate it. If Elasticsearch is empty, this command will create the necessary indices and then import data from the database into those indices. This command will also upgrade indices if the underlying schema has been changed since the last run.

--batch-size

Defaults to 1000. A lower batch size can make ElasticSearch process records more quickly.

--only INDEX

Specify an index name [accounts, tags, statuses] to create or update only that index.

--concurrency N

Parallelize execution of the command on multiple threads. Defaults to N=2.

Version history: 2.8.0 - added
3.0.0 - add --processes for parallelization 3.3.0 - options changed
3.5.0 - add --batch-size

Settings CLI

tootctl settings registrations open

Opens registrations.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

tootctl settings registrations close

Closes registrations.

Version history:
2.6.0 - added

tootctl settings registrations approved

Set registration to require approval.

Version history:
3.5.2 - added

--require_reason

If true, users must enter a reason when registering.

Statuses CLI

tootctl statuses remove

Remove unreferenced statuses from the database, such as statuses that came from relays or from users who are no longer followed by any local accounts, and have not been replied to or otherwise interacted with.

This is a computationally heavy procedure that creates extra database indices before commencing, and removes them afterward.

--days N

How old statuses have to be before they are removed. Defaults to 90.

--skip-media-remove

Skips removing the media, in case S3 errors out. Defaults to false.

Version history:
2.8.0 - added
3.1.3 - added --skip-media-remove
3.5.0 - now removes orphaned records and performs additional cleanup tasks

Upgrade CLI

tootctl upgrade storage-schema

Upgrade the storage schema to store all non-local media resources in a top-level cache directory. WARNING: This is optional, and only for deployments made before v3.1.4. This command can incur massive object storage costs due to moving potentially terabytes of data.

--verbose

Print additional information while task is processing.

--dry-run

Print expected results only, without performing any actions.

Version history:
3.1.4 - added