prosodyctl
Control and manage the Prosody XMPP server
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
prosodyctl [options] command [args]
DESCRIPTION
prosodyctl is the administration tool for the Prosody XMPP/Jabber server, providing service control, user management, and configuration validation from the command line. It can start, stop, restart, and reload the server, with reload applying configuration changes without disconnecting users.User management commands handle XMPP account lifecycle: creating accounts with adduser, removing them with deluser, and resetting passwords with passwd. All user operations use JID (Jabber ID) format like user@domain.com.The check command validates the Prosody configuration, DNS records, and TLS certificates before applying changes, catching common setup errors. Certificate management commands help import, generate, and inspect TLS certificates needed for secure XMPP connections.
PARAMETERS
start
Start Prosody.stop
Stop Prosody.restart
Restart Prosody.status
Show status.reload
Reload configuration.adduser JID
Create user account.deluser JID
Delete user account.passwd JID
Change password.check
Validate configuration.about
Version and paths.cert subcommand hosts
Certificate management (request, generate, key, import).register USER HOST PASSWORD
Register a user non-interactively.unregister USER HOST
Unregister a user non-interactively.shell
Open the Prosody admin shell for runtime inspection.--config filename
Use the specified config file instead of the default.--verbose
Increase log level to show debug messages.--quiet
Reduce log level to only show errors.
CAVEATS
Requires root or appropriate permissions for most operations. Commands like status, reload, and shell require Prosody to be running. JID format (user@domain) required for user management commands.
HISTORY
Prosody was started by Matthew Wild in 2008 as a lightweight XMPP server. It's known for being modular, standards-compliant, and memory-efficient.
SEE ALSO
ejabberdctl(1), prosody(8)
