Managing boards

How to install board cores? How to set the default board? Etc.

This is the CLI equivalent to the board manager in Arduino IDE 2.X.

• Update index of available platforms:

$ arduino-cli core update-index

• Search for the board core: We are searching for "Uno" in this example.

$ arduino-cli core search uno

• Install the core: Installing "arduino:avr" in this example.

$ arduino-cli core install arduino:avr

• List all boards: Listing all boards supported by the current installation.

$ arduino-cli board listall

Setting the Default Board

You can set a default board so there is no need specifying it every time:

• Finding the FQBN (Fully Qualified Board Name) of the board:

$ arduino-cli board listall

Example output:

$ arduino-cli board listall
  ID                Name                      FQBN
  uno               Arduino Uno               arduino:avr:uno
  nano              Arduino Nano              arduino:avr:nano
  esp32dev          ESP32 Dev Module          esp32:esp32:esp32
  

• Set it in the arduino-cli.yaml config file: Usually the file is located in "~/.arduino15/arduino-cli.yaml". You might need to create it first.

board_manager:
  additional_urls: []
default_board: arduino:avr:uno
  

• Testing: Compile a sketch without specifying the board. If you do not get an error like following, it worked!

Error: no FQBN provided

Using 3rd-party board URLs

Using 3rd-party board URLs in arduino-cli is needed for working with boards like ESP32, STM32, etc.

• Finding out the right URL: Each 3rd-party core provides a package index URL. Here are some examples:

Board / Platform	URL
ESP32	https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json
ESP8266	http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

• Editing arduino-cli.yaml: Here is an example:

board_manager:
  additional_urls:
    - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json
    - http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

default_board: esp32:esp32:esp32

• Update Core Index: This fetches the latest list of supported 3rd-party boards:

$ arduino-cli core update-index

• You can list available cores:

$ arduino-cli core search esp32

• Install the Core:

$ arduino-cli core install esp32:esp32

• Compile or upload a sketch using the new board:

$ arduino-cli compile --fqbn esp32:esp32:esp32 MySketch

• or verify installation: This also lists all installed cores.

$ arduino-cli core list

and:

$ arduino-cli board listall | grep esp32

Remove / Uninstall cores

• List all installed cores:

$ arduino-cli core list

• Uninstall core:

$ arduino-cli core uninstall core-name