# Creating CLI commands in Laravel

> Learn how to create your own Artisan CLI commands in Laravel with php artisan make:command, defining the command signature and its handle() method.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2023-06-27 | Topics: [Laravel](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/laravel/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/creating-cli-commands-in-laravel/

In this Laravel series we’ve used Artisan, the Laravel command line tool, to perform various actions:

- `php artisan serve`
- `php artisan make:migration`
- `php artisan migrate`
- `php artisan make:model`
- `php artisan make:controller`
- `php artisan breeze:install`

Those are all built-in commands.

There are many, many more.

Some you’ll use often, some you’ll never use.

Run `php artisan` to see them all with a short explanation:

![Terminal output showing the complete list of available Laravel Artisan commands with descriptions](https://flaviocopes.com/images/creating-cli-commands-in-laravel/1.webp)

And to see how to use a command in particular, run `php artisan <command> -h`:

![Terminal showing help documentation for a specific Laravel Artisan command with usage options and parameters](https://flaviocopes.com/images/creating-cli-commands-in-laravel/2.webp)

You can create your own commands, too. 

Run

```php
php artisan make:command MyCommand
```

This creates a file in `app/Console/Commands/MyCommand.php` pre-filled with some code:

```php
<?php

namespace App\Console\Commands;

use Illuminate\Console\Command;

class MyCommand extends Command
{
    /**
     * The name and signature of the console command.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $signature = 'app:my-command';

    /**
     * The console command description.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $description = 'Command description';

    /**
     * Execute the console command.
     */
    public function handle()
    {
        //
    }
}
```

`$signature` defines how the command will be called, in this case you can run it using

```php
php artisan app:my-command
```

In the `handle()` method you’ll write the code that runs when the command is executed.

```php
public function handle()
{
    //
}
```

The simplest code could be printing something to the console, for example:

```php
public function handle()
{
    $this->info('test!');
}
```

Now try running `php artisan app:my-command`:

![Terminal output displaying test! message from running the custom Laravel Artisan command](https://flaviocopes.com/images/creating-cli-commands-in-laravel/3.webp)

You can do lots of things in a command. You can accept arguments, interactively ask something to the user using prompts to confirm or asking for input, or let them choose between different options, you can format output in different ways…

Commands are great to perform one-off tasks, maintenance, and much more. Inside a command you have access to all the goodies provided by Laravel, including your own code, classes, and more.

You can also call other commands. And commands can be ran by any part of your Laravel app.

You can also schedule commands using schedules. The server can be configured to run Laravel’s schedules, and then any schedule configured in Laravel will be executed as needed.