Buf(1)

✨ Buf(1) — the buf-build glow-up ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to Buf(1), the manual page for buf build, and honestly? it's giving "build your Protobuf files into a Buf image" main character energy 🎀 no cap. let's get into it.

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

buf-build — Build Protobuf files into a Buf image 💅 like, that's the whole vibe.

---

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

buf build  [flags]

literally that's it. so clean. so iconic.

---

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so the first argument is the source or module to build, or the image to convert — and it must be one of these formats, periodt:

[binpb,dir,git,json,mod,protofile,tar,txtpb,yaml,zip]

if you don't pass any argument at all? it lowkey defaults to "." 🫶 (that's your current directory, bestie, in case you were wondering).

---

✨ OPTIONS ✨

okay here's the full menu, every single one, no skips 🍓

• --as-file-descriptor-set[=false] — output as a google.protobuf.FileDescriptorSet instead of an image. ngl this one's a little sleeper agent: images are wire compatible with FileDescriptorSets, but this flag strips the extra metadata that was added for Buf usage. so like, you lose the Buf seasoning 😭
• --config="" — the buf.yaml file or data to use for configuration. your config, your rules 💖
• --disable-symlinks[=false] — don't follow symlinks when reading sources or configuration from the local filesystem. by default symlinks are followed in this CLI, but they're never followed on the Buf Schema Registry 👀 (yes, that's a real difference, write it down)
• --error-format="text" — the format for build errors printed to stderr. must be one of [text,json,msvs,junit,github-actions,gitlab-code-quality] — pick your fighter ⭐
• --exclude-imports[=false] — exclude imports. that's it, that's the whole thing 🙈
• --exclude-path=[] — exclude specific files or directories, e.g. "proto/a/a.proto", "proto/a". if specified multiple times, the union is taken 🔥
• --exclude-source-info[=false] — exclude source info 🎀
• --exclude-source-retention-options[=false] — exclude options whose retention is source 🧚
• -h, --help[=false] — help for build. the classic. the icon 👑
• -o, --output="/dev/null" — the output location for the built image. must be one of format [binpb,json,txtpb,yaml]. and yeah, the default literally yeets everything into /dev/null 💀 so specify something if you actually want it
• --path=[] — limit to specific files or directories, e.g. "proto/a/a.proto", "proto/a". if specified multiple times, the union is taken 🌸
• --type=[] — the types (package, message, enum, extension, service, method) that should be included in this image. when specified, the resulting image will only include descriptors to describe the requested types. a type name may end with .** to recursively include the named element and everything nested beneath it — such as a package and all of its sub-packages 🦋 (recursive slay, honestly)

---

💜 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 💜

these are the family hand-me-downs, and they're still cute:

• --debug[=false] — turn on debug logging (env BUF_DEBUG) 🐛
• --log-format="color" — the log format text,color,json ⟨env BUF_LOG_FORMAT⟩ 🌈
• --timeout=0s — the duration until timing out; setting it to 0 means no timeout (env BUF_TIMEOUT). so 0s is the "we stay vibing forever" setting ⏳

---

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• buf(1) — the parent, the origin story, the blueprint 💖

---

🎀 HISTORY 🎀

2026-10-22 Auto generated by spf13/cobra

---

bestie reminder: this whole page was Auto generated by spf13/cobra, dated 2026-10-22, and it lives under the manual name Buf(1) ✨ so if anything breaks, blame the cobra, not me 💅 periodt 💜