ntfy/docs/subscribe/cli.md

# Subscribe via ntfy CLI
In addition to subscribing via the [web UI](web.md), the [phone app](phone.md), or the [API](api.md), you can subscribe
to topics via the ntfy CLI. The CLI is included in the same `ntfy` binary that can be used to [self-host a server](../install.md).

!!! info
    The **ntfy CLI is not required to send or receive messages**. You can instead [send messages with curl](../publish.md),
    and even use it to [subscribe to topics](api.md). It may be a little more convenient to use the ntfy CLI than writing 
    your own script. It all depends on the use case. 😀

## Install + configure
To install the ntfy CLI, simply **follow the steps outlined on the [install page](../install.md)**. The ntfy server and 
client are the same binary, so it's all very convenient. After installing, you can (optionally) configure the client 
by creating `~/.config/ntfy/client.yml` (for the non-root user), or `/etc/ntfy/client.yml` (for the root user). You 
can find a [skeleton config](https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/blob/main/client/client.yml) on GitHub. 

If you just want to use [ntfy.sh](https://ntfy.sh), you don't have to change anything. If you **self-host your own server**,
you may want to edit the `default-host` option:

``` yaml
# Base URL used to expand short topic names in the "ntfy publish" and "ntfy subscribe" commands.
# If you self-host a ntfy server, you'll likely want to change this.
#
default-host: https://ntfy.myhost.com
```

## Publish messages
You can send messages with the ntfy CLI using the `ntfy publish` command (or any of its aliases `pub`, `send` or 
`trigger`). There are a lot of examples on the page about [publishing messages](../publish.md), but here are a few
quick ones:

=== "Simple send"
    ```
    ntfy publish mytopic This is a message
    ntfy publish mytopic "This is a message"
    ntfy pub mytopic "This is a message" 
    ```

=== "Send with title, priority, and tags"
    ```
    ntfy publish \
        --title="Thing sold on eBay" \
        --priority=high \
        --tags=partying_face \
        mytopic \
        "Somebody just bought the thing that you sell"
    ```

=== "Send at 8:30am"
    ```
    ntfy pub --at=8:30am delayed_topic Laterzz
    ```

=== "Triggering a webhook"
    ```
    ntfy trigger mywebhook
    ntfy pub mywebhook
    ```

## Subscribe to topics
You can subscribe to topics using `ntfy subscribe`. Depending on how it is called, this command
will either print or execute a command for every arriving message. There are a few different ways 
in which the command can be run:

### Stream messages as JSON
```
ntfy subscribe TOPIC
```
If you run the command like this, it prints the JSON representation of every incoming message. This is useful 
when you have a command that wants to stream-read incoming JSON messages. Unless `--poll` is passed, this command 
stays open forever.

```
$ ntfy sub mytopic
{"id":"nZ8PjH5oox","time":1639971913,"event":"message","topic":"mytopic","message":"hi there"}
{"id":"sekSLWTujn","time":1639972063,"event":"message","topic":"mytopic",priority:5,"message":"Oh no!"}
...
```

<figure>
  <video controls muted autoplay loop width="650" src="../../static/img/cli-subscribe-video-1.mp4"></video>
  <figcaption>Subscribe in JSON mode</figcaption>
</figure>

### Run command for every message
```
ntfy subscribe TOPIC COMMAND
```
If you run it like this, a COMMAND is executed for every incoming messages. Scroll down to see a list of available
environment variables. Here are a few examples:
 
```
ntfy sub mytopic 'notify-send "$m"'
ntfy sub topic1 /my/script.sh
ntfy sub topic1 'echo "Message $m was received. Its title was $t and it had priority $p'
```

<figure>
  <video controls muted autoplay loop width="650" src="../../static/img/cli-subscribe-video-2.webm"></video>
  <figcaption>Execute command on incoming messages</figcaption>
</figure>

The message fields are passed to the command as environment variables and can be used in scripts. Note that since 
these are environment variables, you typically don't have to worry about quoting too much, as long as you enclose them
in double-quotes, you should be fine:

| Variable | Aliases | Description |
|---|---|---
| `$NTFY_ID` | `$id` | Unique message ID |
| `$NTFY_TIME` | `$time` | Unix timestamp of the message delivery |
| `$NTFY_TOPIC` | `$topic` | Topic name |
| `$NTFY_MESSAGE` | `$message`, `$m` | Message body |
| `$NTFY_TITLE` | `$title`, `$t` | Message title |
| `$NTFY_PRIORITY` | `$priority`, `$prio`, `$p` | Message priority (1=min, 5=max) |
| `$NTFY_TAGS` | `$tags`, `$tag`, `$ta` | Message tags (comma separated list) |
   
### Subscribe to multiple topics
```
ntfy subscribe --from-config
```
To subscribe to multiple topics at once, and run different commands for each one, you can use `ntfy subscribe --from-config`,
which will read the `subscribe` config from the config file. Please also check out the [ntfy-client systemd service](#using-the-systemd-service).

Here's an example config file that subscribes to three different topics, executing a different command for each of them:

=== "~/.config/ntfy/client.yml"
    ```yaml
    subscribe:
      - topic: echo-this
        command: 'echo "Message received: $message"'
      - topic: get-temp
        command: |
          temp="$(sensors | awk '/Package/ { print $4 }')"
          ntfy publish --quiet temp "$temp";
          echo "CPU temp is $temp; published to topic 'temp'"
      - topic: alerts
        command: notify-send "$m"
      - topic: calc
        command: 'gnome-calculator 2>/dev/null &'
    ```

In this example, when `ntfy subscribe --from-config` is executed:

* Messages to topic `echo-this` will be simply echoed to standard out
* Messages to topic `get-temp` will publish the CPU core temperature to topic `temp`
* Messages to topic `alerts` will be displayed as desktop notification using `notify-send`
* And messages to topic `calc` will open the gnome calculator 😀 (*because, why not*)

I hope this shows how powerful this command is. Here's a short video that demonstrates the above example:

<figure>
  <video controls muted autoplay loop width="650" src="../../static/img/cli-subscribe-video-3.webm"></video>
  <figcaption>Execute all the things</figcaption>
</figure>

### Using the systemd service
You can use the `ntfy-client` systemd service (see [ntfy-client.service](https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/blob/main/client/ntfy-client.service))
to subscribe to multiple topics just like in the example above. The service is automatically installed (but not started)
if you install the deb/rpm package. To configure it, simply edit `/etc/ntfy/client.yml` and run `sudo systemctl restart ntfy-client`.

!!! info
    The `ntfy-client.service` runs as user `ntfy`, meaning that typical Linux permission restrictions apply. See below
    for how to fix this.

If the service runs on your personal desktop machine, you may want to override the service user/group (`User=` and `Group=`), and 
adjust the `DISPLAY` and `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` environment variables. This will allow you to run commands in your X session 
as the primary machine user.

You can either manually override these systemd service entries with `sudo systemctl edit ntfy-client`, and add this
(assuming your user is `phil`). Don't forget to run `sudo systemctl daemon-reload` and `sudo systemctl restart ntfy-client`
after editing the service file:

=== "/etc/systemd/system/ntfy-client.service.d/override.conf"
    ```
    [Service]
    User=phil
    Group=phil
    Environment="DISPLAY=:0" "DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus"
    ```
Or you can run the following script that creates this override config for you:

```
sudo sh -c 'cat > /etc/systemd/system/ntfy-client.service.d/override.conf' <<EOF
[Service]
User=$USER
Group=$USER
Environment="DISPLAY=:0" "DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/$(id -u)/bus"
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart ntfy-client
```