---
title: "calicoctl get"
description: "Reference for the calicoctl get command in Calico Open Source, used to list resources in plain, YAML, JSON, or wide output formats."
product: "Calico Open Source"
version: "3.33 (latest)"
section: "Reference"
canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/get"
---

# calicoctl get

This sections describes the `calicoctl get` command.

Read the [calicoctl command line interface user reference](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/overview.md) for a full list of calicoctl commands.

> **SECONDARY:** The available actions for a specific resource type may be limited based on the datastore used for Calico (etcdv3 / Kubernetes API). Please refer to the [Resources section](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) for details about each resource type.

## Displaying the help text for 'calicoctl get' command

Run `calicoctl get --help` to display the following help menu for the command.

```text
Get one or more Calico resources - all resources of a type, specific ones by
name, or those described in a file. Output can be a table (the default), YAML,
JSON, or a custom template; the YAML and JSON output can be fed back into apply
or replace.

Usage:
  calicoctl get [KIND [NAME...]] [flags]

Examples:
  # List all network policies.
  calicoctl get networkpolicy

  # Get specific policies as YAML.
  calicoctl get networkpolicy my-policy-1 my-policy-2 -o yaml

Flags:
  -A, --all-namespaces     List the requested object(s) across all namespaces.
  -c, --config string      Path to the file containing connection configuration in YAML or JSON format. (default "/etc/calico/calicoctl.cfg")
      --export             Strip cluster-specific information from the output.
  -f, --filename string    Filename to use to create/apply/replace/delete the resource. Use '-' for stdin.
  -h, --help               help for get
  -n, --namespace string   Namespace of the resource.
  -o, --output string      Output format: yaml, json, ps, wide, custom-columns=..., go-template=..., go-template-file=... (default "ps")
  -R, --recursive          Process the filename specified in -f recursively.
      --skip-empty         Do not error if files contain no data.

Global Flags:
      --allow-version-mismatch   Allow client and cluster versions mismatch
      --context string           The name of the kubeconfig context to use
  -l, --log-level string         Set the log level (panic, fatal, error, warn, info, debug) (default "panic")
```

### Options

```text
  -h, --help               help for get
  -f, --filename string    Filename to use to create/apply/replace/delete the resource. Use '-' for stdin.
  -o, --output string      Output format: yaml, json, ps, wide, custom-columns=..., go-template=..., go-template-file=... (default "ps")
  -n, --namespace string   Namespace of the resource.
  -A, --all-namespaces     List the requested object(s) across all namespaces.
      --export             Strip cluster-specific information from the output.
```

### General options

```text
  -c, --config string      Path to the file containing connection configuration in YAML or JSON format. (default "/etc/calico/calicoctl.cfg")
```

### Output options

#### `ps`

This is the default output format. It displays output in ps-style table output with sufficient columns to uniquely identify the resource.

The headings displayed for each resource type is fixed. However, we `wide` option for displaying additional columns, and `custom-columns` for selecting which columns to display.

Example:

```bash
calicoctl get hostEndpoint
```

Response:

```text
NAME          NODE
endpoint1     host1
myhost-eth0   myhost
```

#### `wide`

Similar to the `ps` format, the `wide` option displays output in ps-style table output but with additional columns.

The headings displayed for each resource type is fixed. See `custom-columns` for selecting which columns to display.

Example:

```bash
calicoctl get hostEndpoint --output=wide
```

Response:

```text
NAME           NODE     INTERFACE   IPS                PROFILES
endpoint1      host1                1.2.3.4,0:bb::aa   prof1,prof2
myhost-eth0    myhost                                  profile1
```

#### `custom-columns`

Similar to the `ps` format, the `custom-columns` option displays output in ps-style table output but allows the user to specify and ordered, comma-separated list of columns to display in the output. The valid heading names for each resource type is documented in the [Resources](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) guide.

Example:

```text
calicoctl get hostEndpoint --output=custom-columns=NAME,IPS
```

Response:

```text
NAME        IPS
endpoint1   1.2.3.4,0:bb::aa
myhost-eth0
```

#### `yaml / json`

The `yaml` and `json` options display the output as a list of YAML documents or JSON dictionaries. The fields for resource type are documented in the [Resources](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) guide.

The output from either of these formats may be used as input for all of the resource management commands.

Example:

```bash
calicoctl get hostEndpoint --output=yaml
```

Response:

```yaml
- apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
  kind: HostEndpoint
  metadata:
    labels:
      type: database
    name: endpoint1
  spec:
    node: host1
    expectedIPs:
      - 1.2.3.4
      - 0:bb::aa
    profiles:
      - prof1
      - prof2
- apiVersion: projectcalico.org/v3
  kind: HostEndpoint
  metadata:
    name: myhost-eth0
  spec:
    node: myhost
    profiles:
      - profile1
```

#### `go-template / go-template-file`

The `go-template` and `go-template-file` options display the output using a golang template specified as a string on the CLI, or defined in a separate file. When writing a template, be aware that the data passed to the template is a golang slice of resource-lists. The resource-lists are defined in the [libcalico API](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) and there is a resource-list defined for each resource type. A resource-list contains an Items field which is itself a slice of resources. Thus, to output the "Name" field from the supplied data, it is necessary to enumerate over the slice of resource-lists and the items within that list.

Example:

```bash
bin/calicoctl get hostEndpoint --output=go-template="{{range .}}{{range .Items}}{{.ObjectMeta.Name}},{{end}}{{end}}"
endpoint1,eth0,
```

## See also

- [Installing calicoctl](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/operations/calicoctl/install.md).
- [Resources](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) for details on all valid resources, including file format and schema
- [NetworkPolicy](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/networkpolicy.md) for details on the Calico selector-based policy model