/cmd/micro/cli

Micro

A Go microservices toolkit

Overview

Micro is a toolkit for Go microservices development. It provides the foundation for building services in the cloud. The core of Micro is the Go Micro framework, which developers import and use in their code to write services. Surrounding this we introduce a number of tools to make it easy to serve and consume services.

Install the CLI

Install micro via go install

go install go-micro.dev/v5/cmd/micro@v5.16.0

Note: Use a specific version instead of @latest to avoid module path conflicts. See releases for the latest version.

Or via install script

wget -q  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/micro/micro/master/scripts/install.sh -O - | /bin/bash

For releases see the latest tag

Create a service

Create your service (all setup is now automatic!):

micro new helloworld

This will:

• Create a new service in the helloworld directory
• Automatically run go mod tidy and make proto for you
• Show the updated project tree including generated files
• Warn you if protoc is not installed, with install instructions

Run the service

Run the service

micro run

List services to see it's running and registered itself

micro services

Describe the service

Describe the service to see available endpoints

micro describe helloworld

Output

{
    "name": "helloworld",
    "version": "latest",
    "metadata": null,
    "endpoints": [
        {
            "request": {
                "name": "Request",
                "type": "Request",
                "values": [
                    {
                        "name": "name",
                        "type": "string",
                        "values": null
                    }
                ]
            },
            "response": {
                "name": "Response",
                "type": "Response",
                "values": [
                    {
                        "name": "msg",
                        "type": "string",
                        "values": null
                    }
                ]
            },
            "metadata": {},
            "name": "Helloworld.Call"
        },
        {
            "request": {
                "name": "Context",
                "type": "Context",
                "values": null
            },
            "response": {
                "name": "Stream",
                "type": "Stream",
                "values": null
            },
            "metadata": {
                "stream": "true"
            },
            "name": "Helloworld.Stream"
        }
    ],
    "nodes": [
        {
            "metadata": {
                "broker": "http",
                "protocol": "mucp",
                "registry": "mdns",
                "server": "mucp",
                "transport": "http"
            },
            "id": "helloworld-31e55be7-ac83-4810-89c8-a6192fb3ae83",
            "address": "127.0.0.1:39963"
        }
    ]
}

Call the service

Call via RPC endpoint

micro call helloworld Helloworld.Call '{"name": "Asim"}'

Create a client

Create a client to call the service

package main

import (
        "context"
        "fmt"

        "go-micro.dev/v5"
)

type Request struct {
        Name string
}

type Response struct {
        Message string
}

func main() {
        client := micro.New("helloworld").Client()

        req := client.NewRequest("helloworld", "Helloworld.Call", &Request{Name: "John"})

        var rsp Response

        err := client.Call(context.TODO(), req, &rsp)
        if err != nil {
                fmt.Println(err)
                return
        }

        fmt.Println(rsp.Message)
}

Protobuf

Use protobuf for code generation with protoc-gen-micro

Server

The micro server is an api and web dashboard that provide a fixed entrypoint for seeing and querying services.

Run it like so

micro server

Then browse to localhost:8080

API Endpoints

The API provides a fixed HTTP entrypoint for calling services

curl http://localhost:8080/api/helloworld/Helloworld/Call -d '{"name": "John"}'

See /api for more details and documentation for each service

Web Dashboard

The web dashboard provides a modern, secure UI for managing and exploring your Micro services. Major features include:

• Dynamic Service & Endpoint Forms: Browse all registered services and endpoints. For each endpoint, a dynamic form is generated for easy testing and exploration.
• API Documentation: The /api page lists all available services and endpoints, with request/response schemas and a sidebar for quick navigation. A documentation banner explains authentication requirements.
• JWT Authentication: All login and token management uses a custom JWT utility. Passwords are securely stored with bcrypt. All /api/x endpoints and authenticated pages require an Authorization: Bearer <token> header (or micro_token cookie as fallback).
• Token Management: The /auth/tokens page allows you to generate, view (obfuscated), and copy JWT tokens. Tokens are stored and can be revoked. When a user is deleted, all their tokens are revoked immediately.
• User Management: The /auth/users page allows you to create, list, and delete users. Passwords are never shown or stored in plaintext.
• Token Revocation: JWT tokens are stored and checked for revocation on every request. Revoked or deleted tokens are immediately invalidated.
• Security: All protected endpoints use consistent authentication logic. Unauthorized or revoked tokens receive a 401 error. All sensitive actions require authentication.
• Logs & Status: View service logs and status (PID, uptime, etc) directly from the dashboard.

To get started, run:

micro server

Then browse to localhost:8080 and log in with the default admin account (admin/micro).

Note: See the /api page for details on API authentication and how to generate tokens for use with the HTTP API