Service networking CLI for running Consul agents, querying service discovery state, and managing mesh, peerings, and cluster operations.
$brew tap hashicorp/tap && brew install hashicorp/tap/consul
Agent Compatibility
JSON Output
Agent Skill
MCP Support
AI Analysis
Consul is HashiCorp's CLI for running and operating Consul agents and clusters across service discovery, service mesh, and control-plane workflows. It spans local-agent actions and higher-level cluster administration such as catalog, config, resources, peerings, and snapshots.
What It Enables
- Run or join agents, inspect members, stream logs, and troubleshoot service-mesh connectivity from the shell.
- Register or deregister services, query catalog and KV state, and read or update config and resource objects against Consul APIs.
- Operate cluster features such as peerings, exported services, ACL-related workflows, and verified server snapshots.
Agent Fit
- The command surface is broad and mostly non-interactive once addresses, partitions, and auth are configured, so it fits shell-driven inspect, change, and verify loops.
- Structured output is real but uneven: resource and config reads emit JSON directly, and peering or autopilot commands support
-format=json. - Agents fit best when they already know which Consul address, namespace, partition, and ACL token to use, because many commands are thin clients over a reachable local or remote agent.
Caveats
- Useful automation depends on running Consul agents or servers plus valid network access and often ACL credentials.
- Some features are enterprise-only, and several read paths still default to human-oriented text instead of a universal JSON mode.