by Mike DeAngelo and Josh Temple
We are introducing looker-cli, a complete rewrite of the popular Gazer (gzr) tool in the Go programming language. This modernization represents a significant leap forward in performance, security, and extensibility for Looker developers and administrators.
Why the move to Go?
While the original Ruby-based gzr has served the community well for years, the shift to Go provides a more robust foundation that aligns with modern development environments. looker-cli is faster, easier to distribute as a single binary, and offers the performance required for complex orchestration and high-volume API interactions.
Key Features and Enhancements
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OAuth PKCE Support: looker-cli introduces native support for OAuth PKCE authentication. This allows for secure, modern authentication for headless and remote environments without the need for static API keys.
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Direct LookML Project Management: For the first time, you can manage LookML project files and directories directly via the CLI. This allows developers to create, update, and organize views and models programmatically, unblocking essential “Content as Code” workflows.
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Health Check Tools: The health check tools in the open source tool Henry are included as tools in looker-cli.
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100% API 4.0 Coverage: We’ve moved beyond manual wrappers. looker-cli provides full coverage of the Looker 4.0 API, ensuring that every endpoint available in the platform is accessible to you through the terminal.
Designed for the Agentic Era
As AI agents become a central part of the developer workflow, we’ve built looker-cli with agentic integration in mind. It serves as a reliable, high-fidelity interface for AI assistants to interact with your Looker instance. By coupling looker-cli with standardized Looker skills from our Looker Skills repository, you can provide AI agents with the specialized instructions and best practices needed to write high-quality LookML and manage content effectively.
Get Started Today
looker-cli is a drop-in replacement for gzr, making the transition simple for your existing scripts and workflows. You can download the latest release and find full documentation at the official repository: GitHub - looker-open-source/looker-cli: A Command Line Tool for Looker Content Management · GitHub. You can report issues and make feature requests in the github repository.
We can’t wait to see how you use looker-cli to accelerate your Looker development!