The VoLCA CLI provides direct access to all engine features. Most commands work in two modes:
Local mode – loads databases into memory and queries them directly (fast, no server needed for most commands)Client mode – connects to a running VoLCA server via HTTP (useful when the server is already running)
Most commands need --config pointing to your volca.toml file. server and stop run on built-in defaults without one (stop also accepts --url to find a server), and the dump-* tooling commands describe the engine itself rather than an installation of it, so they take none either. See Configuration for what the file holds.
Flag Description -c, --config FILETOML config file (required for most commands) --db NAMEDatabase name to query (from config file) --methods PATHDirectory containing ILCD method XML files --format FORMATOutput format: json, csv, table, pretty (default: pretty) --jsonpath PATHJSONPath expression for CSV extraction (use with --format csv) --no-cacheDisable caching --url URLServer URL for client mode (or VOLCA_URL env var) --password PASSWORDAuth password (or VOLCA_PASSWORD env var) --versionShow version info
Format Best for prettyHuman reading in the terminal (default) tableTabular data, aligned columns jsonMachine processing, API-compatible csvSpreadsheet import; combine with --jsonpath to extract a field
# Extract impact assessment results as CSV
volca --config volca.toml --db ecoinvent impacts <UUID> --method <M_UUID> \
--format csv --jsonpath srResults > results.csv
Command Description serverStart the HTTP API server activitiesSearch activities activityGet activity details inventoryCompute life cycle inventory impactsCompute impact assessment (LCIA) scores flowQuery flow information flowsSearch flows flow-mappingAnalyze flow mapping coverage databaseManage databases methodManage method collections replInteractive REPL methodsList loaded methods synonymsList synonym sources compartment-mappingsList compartment mappings unitsList unit definitions stopStop a running server
Variable Equivalent flag VOLCA_URL--urlVOLCA_PASSWORD--password
