pw-cli

TLDR

List objects by type

$ pw-cli ls [Node|Link|Port|Device]

Show info for specific object

$ pw-cli info [4]

Show all objects info

$ pw-cli info all

Monitor for changes

$ pw-cli -m

Display help

$ pw-cli help

SYNOPSIS

pw-cli [-m|--monitor] [command] [args...]

pw-cli is the command-line interface for managing PipeWire. It can list, inspect, create, and destroy PipeWire objects including nodes, links, ports, and devices.
The tool provides low-level access to PipeWire's object model, useful for debugging, scripting, and understanding the audio graph.

PARAMETERS

-m, --monitor

Monitor for object changes

-r, --remote _name_

Connect to remote PipeWire instance

-h, --help

Display help information

COMMANDS

ls, list-objects _type_

List objects of specified type

i, info _id_|_all_

Display info for object or all

create-node _factory_ _props_

Create a new node

destroy _id_

Destroy an object

enum-params _id_ _param_

Enumerate object parameters

set-param _id_ _param_ _value_

Set object parameter

CAVEATS

Requires running PipeWire daemon. Object IDs may change between sessions. For simpler management use wpctl. Some operations require understanding PipeWire internals.

HISTORY

pw-cli is part of PipeWire, the modern multimedia framework for Linux. It provides administrative capabilities similar to pactl for PulseAudio.