PICOTOOL-INFO(1)

🌸 PICOTOOL-INFO(1) 🌸

okay bestie, welcome to another episode of "your girl explains a whole man page and makes it cute." this one lives in the User Commands section of the picotool manual, so grab a strawberry drink and let's get into it 🍓

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✨ NAME ✨

picotool-info — shows you the tea (a.k.a. information) from your target device(s) or from a file. and listen, if you run it with zero arguments, it literally just dumps the basic info for every connected RP-series device that's sitting in BOOTSEL mode. no effort required, she just ✨knows✨

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

picotool info [-b] [-m] [-p] [-d] [--debug] [-l] [-a] [device-selection]

picotool info [-b] [-m] [-p] [-d] [--debug] [-l] [-a] <filename> [-t <type>]

so basically two moods: talk to a device, or talk to a file. pick your fighter 💅

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

💖 Information to display

these are the "how much do you wanna know" dials. stack them however you like.

• -b, --basic — includes the basic information. this is the default, so if you don't ask for anything, this is the vibe you get 🫶
• -m, --metadata — includes all the metadata blocks. all of them. the whole collection.
• -p, --pins — includes the pin information. yes, the actual pins 📍
• -d, --device — includes the device information.
• --debug — includes the device debug information. (no short flag for this one bestie, she's special 💅)
• -l, --build — includes the build attributes.
• -a, --all — includes everything. the full main character montage. no notes. 👑

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🌈 TARGET SELECTION 🌈

🎀 To target one or more connected RP-series device(s) in BOOTSEL mode (the default)

this is the default behaviour, so if you don't say otherwise, you're talking to your plugged-in RP-series device(s) chilling in BOOTSEL mode.

• --bus <bus> — filters devices by USB bus number.
• --address <addr> — filters devices by USB device address.
• --vid <vid> — filters by vendor id.
• --pid <pid> — filters by product id.
• --ser <ser> — filters by serial number.
• -f, --force — forces a device that is not in BOOTSEL mode but is running compatible code to reset, so the command can actually run. after the command executes (unless the command itself is a reboot) the device will be rebooted back to application mode. it's giving "hold my hand, we're going in" 🫶
• -F, --force-no-reboot — same deal, forces a device that is not in BOOTSEL mode but is running compatible code to reset so the command can run. but after the command executes (again, unless the command itself is a reboot), the device is left connected and accessible to picotool, just without the USB drive mounted. so she stays on the line, she's just not showing you her files 🙈

ngl bestie, -f and -F both reset your device — that's the whole point — so know what you're doing before you send it. dramatic but real 💀

🧚 To target a file

• <filename> — the file name. that's it, that's the argument. 📁
• -t <type> — specify the file type (uf2 | elf | bin) explicitly, ignoring the file extension. so if your file is named something chaotic, you can just tell picotool the truth yourself ✨

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🌟 tiny reminder: -b / --basic is the default — you don't have to ask for it, she just comes that way.

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was brought to you by picotool 2.2.0-a4+dfsg, dated December 2025. mwah, go read your pins 💖🎀🦋✨