pio-boards

List all available boards

$ pio boards

$ pio boards --installed

pio boards [OPTIONS]
pio boards search <query>
pio boards show <ID>

--json-output
    Output the command's results in machine-readable JSON format. Useful for scripting and integration with other tools.

--skip-description
    When listing boards, do not print the full description for each board, resulting in a more concise output.

--platform <platform>
    Filter the list of boards to show only those supported by a specific development platform (e.g., espressif32, ststm32, teensy). The platform ID must be exact.

search <query>
    Perform a search for development boards where the board name or description contains the specified query string. This provides a flexible way to find boards without knowing their exact ID.

show <ID>
    Display comprehensive, detailed information for a single development board identified by its unique ID (e.g., nodemcuv2, esp32dev). This includes hardware specifications, debugging capabilities, and supported frameworks.

--id <ID>
    (Alternative to show) Display detailed information for a specific development board using its unique ID. This option can be used directly with the pio boards command.

--name <name>
    Filter and display boards where the board's name matches the specified name. This can be a partial match, making it useful for narrowing down results.

The pio-boards command is an essential part of the PlatformIO Core CLI, designed to manage and display information about the vast collection of development boards supported by PlatformIO.
It empowers embedded developers to efficiently identify and select suitable hardware for their projects. Users can list all available boards, apply filters based on specific criteria like development platform, search for boards using keywords or partial names, or retrieve comprehensive, detailed specifications for a particular board by its unique ID.
This command provides critical insights into board capabilities, including the microcontroller unit (MCU), clock frequency, available memory (Flash and RAM), debugging interfaces, and supported development frameworks, making it indispensable for proper project setup and hardware selection.

The pio-boards command requires the PlatformIO Core CLI to be installed and accessible in the system's PATH.
Listing all boards without filters can produce a very extensive output, often hundreds of entries.
Board IDs used with show or --id are case-sensitive.

Beyond simply listing, pio boards offers robust filtering via --platform and --name, and powerful keyword searching with the search subcommand. These features are indispensable for efficiently navigating the thousands of supported boards to find the exact hardware needed for a project.

When using show <ID> or --id <ID>, the command provides an in-depth breakdown of a board's specifications. This includes details like the microcontroller unit (MCU), clock frequency, flash and RAM memory sizes, built-in debugging capabilities, and the specific development frameworks (e.g., Arduino, ESP-IDF) supported, which is vital for project configuration.

PlatformIO was launched to address the complexities of embedded development. The pio-boards command has been a fundamental component of the PlatformIO CLI since its early days, continuously evolving to include support for an ever-growing list of microcontrollers and development boards. Its development parallels the rapid expansion of the IoT and embedded systems market, providing developers with an updated and comprehensive hardware catalog directly from the command line.

pio run(1), pio platform(1), pio lib(1), grep(1), jq(1)