# Introducing Zilliz CLI and Agent Skills for Zilliz Cloud Source: https://zilliz.com/blog/introducing-zilliz-cli-and-agent-skills-for-zilliz-cloud Author: Fendy Feng Published: 2026-04-01T16:00:00.000Z Starting today, you can manage your entire [Zilliz Cloud](https://zilliz.com/cloud) deployment without leaving your terminal or AI coding agent. Provision clusters, run searches, configure backups, and manage access control — through CLI commands or natural language. No console. No context switching. We're releasing a set of open-source tools that bring every [Zilliz Cloud](https://cloud.zilliz.com/signup) and [Milvus](https://milvus.io/) operation into the workflows where developers already spend their time: - **Zilliz CLI** — every Zilliz Cloud operation, from your terminal - **Zilliz Skill** — teaches AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot etc.) to manage Zilliz Cloud through natural language - **Milvus Skill** — teaches AI coding agents to operate open-source [Milvus](https://milvus.io/) through pymilvus — from Milvus Lite to standalone and distributed clusters Together with the [Zilliz Plugin for Claude Code](https://zilliz.com/blog/zilliz-cloud-just-landed-in-claude-code) we released earlier, these form a layered [vector database](https://zilliz.com/learn/what-is-vector-database) developer tooling stack native to AI. The CLI is the foundation — it talks directly to Zilliz Cloud. The Skill builds on it, giving AI agents the knowledge to drive the CLI through natural language. The Plugin wraps everything into a guided experience with slash commands. And the Milvus Skill stands alongside, teaching agents to operate any self-hosted Milvus deployment through pymilvus. ## Zilliz CLI: Your Vector Database from the Terminal [Zilliz CLI](https://docs.zilliz.com/reference/cli/overview) is a full-featured command-line interface for Zilliz Cloud. Everything you can do in the console — clusters, collections, vector search, hybrid search, indexes, backups, imports, RBAC, billing — works from your terminal. ``` # macOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://zilliz.com/cli/install.sh | bash # Windows (PowerShell) irm https://zilliz.com/cli/install.ps1 | iex ``` A few examples of what this looks like in practice: ``` # Provision a cluster zilliz cluster create --name staging --tier serverless --region us-east-1 # Search your collection zilliz vector search --collection products --data "[0.1, 0.2, ...]" --limit 5 # Set up a nightly backup zilliz backup create --cluster staging --name nightly-backup ``` Built for automation: five output formats (`json`, `table`, `text`, `yaml`, `csv`), JMESPath filtering with `--query`, and flexible authentication (CLI flag, environment variable, or credentials file) fit naturally into CI/CD pipelines and scripts. Full command reference: [Zilliz CLI Reference](https://docs.zilliz.com/reference/cli/overview). The CLI gives you full control from the terminal. But what if your AI coding agent could run these commands for you? ## Zilliz Skills: Manage Zilliz Cloud from Any AI Coding Agent The [Zilliz Skill](https://docs.zilliz.com/docs/agents/zilliz-skill) builds on the CLI. Install it, and your AI coding agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or GitHub Copilot — gains the knowledge to manage Zilliz Cloud through natural language. You describe what you need; the agent figures out the CLI commands. ``` npx skills add zilliztech/zilliz-skill ``` | What You Say | What Happens | | --- | --- | | "Create a serverless cluster in us-east-1" | Agent provisions the cluster via zilliz-cli | | "Search my collection for items similar to this query" | Agent constructs and runs the search | | "Import these Parquet files from S3" | Agent handles the bulk import | | "Set up a daily backup with 7-day retention" | Agent configures the backup policy | | "Create a read-only role for the analytics team" | Agent sets up role-based access control | ### See It in Action ``` Show me the current Zilliz Cloud context and cluster status ``` ![](https://assets.zilliz.com/Introducing_Zilliz_CLI_and_Agent_Skills_for_Zilliz_Cloud_1_5f4b1c947d.png) ``` Search "byoc_whitepaper" for documents about "What are the security benefits of BYOC architecture?", return top 3 results with text and page number ``` ![](https://assets.zilliz.com/Introducing_Zilliz_CLI_and_Agent_Skills_for_Zilliz_Cloud_2_ca121f8a0f.png) The agent builds the search with correct parameters and returns formatted results — no syntax lookup, no console tab. ``` Create a collection called "test_products" with id, name (varchar 256), price (float), and embedding (768-dim) fields ``` ![](https://assets.zilliz.com/Introducing_Zilliz_CLI_and_Agent_Skills_for_Zilliz_Cloud_3_b9f4650c79.png) For the full list of supported operations, see the [Zilliz Skill documentation](https://docs.zilliz.com/docs/agents/zilliz-skill). ## Zilliz Plugin for Claude Code: Guided Setup with Slash Commands If you use Claude Code, there's an even smoother option. Our [Zilliz Plugin for Claude Code](https://zilliz.com/blog/zilliz-cloud-just-landed-in-claude-code), released earlier, wraps the CLI and Zilliz Skill into a guided experience with slash commands: - `/zilliz:quickstart` — walks you through CLI installation, authentication, and cluster connection - `/zilliz:status` — live overview of clusters, collections, and usage - 14 specialized skills covering every operational area ``` /plugin install zilliz@zilliztech/zilliz-plugin ``` If the Skill is the knowledge layer, the Plugin is the onboarding layer — the easiest way to get started with Zilliz Cloud from an AI coding agent. ## Milvus Skills: Operate Milvus from Any AI Coding Agent For developers running open-source [Milvus](https://milvus.io/docs/overview.md) — or anyone who prefers working through Python — the Milvus Skill provides the same agent-powered experience. While the Zilliz Cloud tools manage the hosted service through CLI commands, the Milvus Skill covers the open-source side. It teaches AI coding agents to operate any Milvus deployment through [pymilvus](https://milvus.io/docs/install-pymilvus.md) Python code — the full lifecycle from connections and schemas to search, indexing, RBAC, and [RAG](https://zilliz.com/learn/Retrieval-Augmented-Generation) pipelines. ``` npx skills add zilliztech/milvus-skill ``` The skill contains official, verified pymilvus knowledge maintained by the Milvus engineering team: | Area | What the Milvus Skill Covers | | --- | --- | | Connections | Milvus Lite, Standalone, Distributed | | Collections & Schemas | All data types — scalars, vectors, JSON, arrays — with full collection management | | Vector Operations | Insert, upsert, search, query, delete — plus sparse and dense search, full-text search with BM25 | | Indexing | HNSW, IVF_FLAT, DiskANN, and more — with index management | | Administration | Partitions, databases, users, roles, and RBAC privileges | | Patterns | RAG, semantic search, hybrid search workflows | ### See It in Action Describe what you need, and the agent writes complete pymilvus code: ``` Create a Milvus Lite collection called "articles" with 768-dim vectors and a text field, then insert 5 sample documents about AI technology ``` The agent writes a complete script: connects to Milvus Lite, defines the schema, creates the collection, generates sample [vector embeddings](https://zilliz.com/glossary/vector-embeddings), inserts the data, and runs end-to-end without edits. ![](https://assets.zilliz.com/Introducing_Zilliz_CLI_and_Agent_Skills_for_Zilliz_Cloud_4_d91f72b2f9.png) ``` Create a collection with both dense vectors (768-dim) and sparse vectors, insert 5 sample documents, then perform a hybrid search with RRF reranking ``` ![](https://assets.zilliz.com/Introducing_Zilliz_CLI_and_Agent_Skills_for_Zilliz_Cloud_5_92859891af.png) Two vector fields, dual indexes, sample data, hybrid search with RRF — all generated as working pymilvus code matching the current API. For the full list of covered areas, see the [Milvus for AI Agents](https://milvus.io/docs/milvus_for_agents.md) documentation. ## When to Use Each Tool: Zilliz CLI vs. Zilliz Skill vs. Zilliz Plugin vs. Milvus Skill | | Zilliz CLI | Zilliz Skill | Zilliz Plugin | Milvus Skill | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What it does | Terminal commands for Zilliz Cloud | Teaches agents to use the CLI | Guided Claude Code experience | Teaches agents pymilvus | | Install | curl ... \| bash | npx skills add | /plugin install | npx skills add | | Works with | Terminal, scripts, CI/CD | Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot etc. | Claude Code | Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot etc. | | Best for | Automation, pipelines, terminal ops | Natural-language cloud management | Easiest onboarding for Claude Code | Open-source Milvus via Python | | Manages | Zilliz Cloud | Zilliz Cloud | Zilliz Cloud | Milvus (Lite, Standalone, Distributed) | Most developers combine two or three: the CLI for terminal work and automation, the Zilliz Skill for natural-language cloud operations, and the Milvus Skill for operating Milvus through Python. ## AI Prompts for Zilliz Cloud and Milvus Beyond the CLI and Skills, we also provide curated [AI prompt libraries](https://docs.zilliz.com/docs/agents/zilliz-ai-prompts) for AI-powered IDEs — helping AI assistants implement Zilliz Cloud and Milvus features correctly and efficiently. Save a prompt to a file in your repo, then reference it when chatting with your AI tool — whether that's [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview), Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Gemini CLI. - [AI Prompts for Zilliz Cloud](https://docs.zilliz.com/docs/agents/zilliz-ai-prompts) - [AI Prompts for Milvus](https://milvus.io/docs/milvus_for_agents.md) ## Get Started Install what fits your workflow: **Getting started with Zilliz CLI from your terminal:** ``` curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zilliztech/zilliz-cli/master/install.sh | bash zilliz login ``` **Getting started with Zilliz/Milvus skills from any AI coding agent** (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot): ``` npx skills add zilliztech/zilliz-skill # Zilliz Cloud operations npx skills add zilliztech/milvus-skill # Milvus operations via pymilvus ``` **Getting started with Zilliz plugin for Claude Code users** (includes the Skill plus slash commands): ``` /plugin install zilliz@zilliztech/zilliz-plugin ``` [Sign up](https://cloud.zilliz.com/signup) or [sign in](https://cloud.zilliz.com/login) to Zilliz Cloud — new accounts registered with a work email get $100 in free credits. ## Frequently Asked Questions **What AI coding agents do Zilliz Skill and Milvus Skill support?** Both Skills work with any agent that supports the Skills protocol — including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and GitHub Copilot. The Zilliz Plugin is Claude Code-specific and adds slash commands and guided onboarding on top of the Skill. **What's the difference between Zilliz Skill and Milvus Skill?** Zilliz Skill manages Zilliz Cloud (the fully managed service) through CLI commands. Milvus Skill provides open-source Milvus deployments (Lite, Standalone, Distributed) via the pymilvus Python library. Use Zilliz Skill for cloud, Milvus Skill for self-hosted. **Do I need Zilliz CLI installed to use Zilliz Skill?** Yes. Zilliz Skill teaches the agent to use the CLI — the Skill is the knowledge layer, and the CLI is the execution layer. Install the CLI first, authenticate with zilliz login, then install the Skill. **Can I use Milvus Skill with Milvus Lite for local development?** Yes. Milvus Skill covers the full range of Milvus deployments — including Milvus Lite, which runs in-process without a server. Tell your agent "connect to Milvus Lite" and it generates the correct pymilvus code for local development.