ARDUINO-CLI-LIB-SEARCH(1)

✨ NAME ✨

okay so this is arduino-cli-lib-search, straight out of the ARDUINO COMMAND LINE MANUAL — and bestie, it does exactly what the name says: it searches for one or more libraries matching a query. 💅

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

arduino-cli lib search [SEARCH_TERM ...] [flags]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like, the whole vibe is: search for libraries matching zero or more search terms. That's it. That's the function. 💖

Every single search happens case-insensitively (no cap, capitalization literally does not matter here). And if your query has multiple search terms? It only returns libraries that match all of the terms. It's giving "AND", not "OR". 🫶

Search terms that don't match the QV syntax (explained below, hold on) are just basic search terms, and they'll match libraries that include the term anywhere in any of these fields:

• Author
• Name
• Paragraph
• Provides
• Sentence

Then there's a special syntax called qualifier-value (QV), which says "hey, only compare this search term against one field of each library index entry." The syntax is: the name of an index field (case-insensitive), an equals sign (=) or a colon (:), and a value. For example: 'name=ArduinoJson' or 'provides:tinyusb.h'. 🌸

Here's the tea on the two separators, because they are NOT the same:

• QV search terms with a colon separator match all libraries with the value anywhere in the named field.
• QV search terms with an equals separator match only libraries with exactly the provided value in the named field.

QV search terms can have embedded spaces, using double-quote (") characters around the value or around the entire term. So 'category="Data Processing"' and '"category=Data Processing"' are equivalent — same energy, different fit. ✨ And a QV term can include a literal double-quote character if you precede it with a backslash (\) character.

NOTE: QV search terms using double-quote or backslash characters that are passed as command-line arguments may require quoting or escaping to prevent the shell from interpreting those characters. your shell WILL get in the way if you let it. protect your quotes. 💀

In addition to the fields listed above (the ones up top), QV terms can also use these qualifiers:

• Architectures
• Category
• Dependencies
• License
• Maintainer
• Types
• Version
• Website

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -h, --help[=false] — help for search 💖
• --names[=false] — Show library names only.
• --omit-releases-details[=false] — Omit library details far all versions except the latest (produce a more compact JSON output).

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🌈 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 🌈

• --additional-urls=[] — Comma-separated list of additional URLs for the Boards Manager.
• --config-dir="" — Sets the default data directory (Arduino CLI will look for configuration file in this directory).
• --config-file="" — The custom config file (if not specified the default will be used).
• --json[=false] — Print the output in JSON format.
• --log[=false] — Print the logs on the standard output.
• --log-file="" — Path to the file where logs will be written.
• --log-format="text" — The output format for the logs, can be: text, json
• --log-level="info" — Messages with this level and above will be logged. Valid levels are: trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, panic
• --no-color[=false] — Disable colored output.

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🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search audio                               # basic search for "audio"
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search name:buzzer                         # libraries with "buzzer" in the Name field
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search name=pcf8523                        # libraries with a Name exactly matching "pcf8523"
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search "author:\"Daniel Garcia\""          # libraries authored by Daniel Garcia
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search author=Adafruit name:gfx            # libraries authored only by Adafruit with "gfx" in their Name
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search esp32 display maintainer=espressif  # basic search for "esp32" and "display" limited to official Maintainer
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search dependencies:IRremote               # libraries that depend on at least "IRremote"
debian/build/bin/arduino-cli lib search dependencies=IRremote               # libraries that depend only on "IRremote"

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• arduino-cli-lib(1)

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💜 HISTORY 💜

• 15-Aug-2026 Auto generated by spf13/cobra

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and that's the whole thing bestie, we ate and left no crumbs 💅🏼 seriously though — this page was auto generated by spf13/cobra, dated Aug 2026, from the ARDUINO COMMAND LINE MANUAL. go search some libraries, you absolute icon 👑✨