Posthog CLI

Manage PostHog product analytics from the terminal. Use when the user asks about PostHog analytics, feature flags, experiments, surveys, dashboards, insights, error tracking, logs, queries, or product health metrics. Also use when the user wants to analyze their product data, check active users, review traffic sources, or run HogQL queries against PostHog.

PostHog CLI (phog-cli)

A community-built CLI for PostHog product analytics. Not affiliated with PostHog Inc.

Installation

bash

pip install phog-cli

The CLI command is posthog. Verify with posthog --version.

Authentication

Check if already authenticated, then login if needed:

bash

posthog auth status
posthog auth login          # auto-detects US/EU cloud

For self-hosted: posthog auth login --host https://posthog.company.com

For non-interactive/CI use, set environment variables instead:

bash

export POSTHOG_API_KEY="phx_..."
export POSTHOG_HOST="https://us.posthog.com"
export POSTHOG_PROJECT_ID="12345"

Project Selection

Most commands need an active project:

bash

posthog project list
posthog project switch <project-id>
posthog project current

Global Flags

Use with ANY command:

• --json / -j — Machine-readable JSON output. Always use this when parsing output programmatically.
• --yes / -y — Skip confirmation prompts. Always use this for non-interactive automation.
• --help — Show help for any command.

Quick Reference

Command	What it does
posthog activity summary	Full product health report (WAU, events, traffic, pages, browsers)
posthog activity users	Active users over time (daily/weekly/monthly)
posthog activity events	Top events by volume
posthog flag list	List feature flags
posthog flag create --key KEY --name NAME	Create a feature flag
posthog experiment list	List A/B experiments
posthog experiment results ID	View experiment results
posthog survey list	List surveys
posthog dashboard list	List dashboards
posthog insight list	List saved insights
posthog insight query ID	Execute a saved insight's query
posthog error list	List error tracking issues
posthog log query	Query logs
posthog query run --hogql "SQL"	Run a HogQL query
posthog query generate "question"	Generate HogQL from natural language
posthog search persons --search "email"	Search persons
posthog api get /path/	Raw API escape hatch

For detailed command options, see references/commands.md.

Common Workflows

Product Health Check

bash

posthog --json activity summary --date-from -30d

Returns WAU trends, all custom events with unique user counts, weekly trend breakdowns, traffic sources, top pages, and browser stats in a single call.

Custom Analytics with HogQL

HogQL is a SQL-like language for querying PostHog data.

bash

# Count distinct users for a specific event
posthog query run --hogql "SELECT count(distinct person_id) FROM events WHERE event = 'purchase' AND timestamp > now() - interval 30 day"

# Weekly trends
posthog query run --hogql "SELECT toStartOfWeek(timestamp) as week, count() as c FROM events WHERE event = 'signup' AND timestamp > now() - interval 90 day GROUP BY week ORDER BY week"

# Traffic sources
posthog query run --hogql "SELECT properties.\$referring_domain as source, count(distinct person_id) as users FROM events WHERE event = '\$pageview' AND timestamp > now() - interval 30 day AND properties.\$referring_domain IS NOT NULL AND properties.\$referring_domain != '' GROUP BY source ORDER BY users DESC LIMIT 10"

# Funnel conversion
posthog query run --hogql "SELECT count(distinct person_id) as started, countIf(distinct person_id, person_id IN (SELECT distinct person_id FROM events WHERE event = 'purchase' AND timestamp > now() - interval 30 day)) as converted FROM events WHERE event = 'add_to_cart' AND timestamp > now() - interval 30 day"

HogQL essentials:

• Events table: events — columns: event, timestamp, person_id, properties
• Access properties: properties.$current_url, properties.$browser, properties.$referring_domain
• System events are $-prefixed: $pageview, $pageleave, $autocapture, $set
• Custom events have no prefix: purchase, signup, file_upload
• Time: now(), toStartOfWeek(timestamp), toStartOfMonth(timestamp)
• Distinct users: count(distinct person_id)

Feature Flag Rollout

bash

posthog flag create --key new-feature --name "New Feature" --rollout-percentage 10
posthog flag update <id> --rollout-percentage 50
posthog flag update <id> --rollout-percentage 100

Run an Experiment

bash

posthog experiment create --name "CTA Test" --feature-flag-key cta-test
posthog experiment update <id> --launch
posthog experiment results <id> --refresh
posthog experiment update <id> --end

Raw API Escape Hatch

For anything the CLI doesn't cover:

bash

posthog api get /path/
posthog api post /path/ --data '{"key": "value"}'
posthog api patch /path/ --data '{"key": "value"}'
posthog api delete /path/

Error Handling

• API error 401 — Invalid credentials. Run posthog auth login.
• API error 404 — Resource not found or wrong endpoint path.
• No active project — Run posthog project list then posthog project switch <id>.
• All errors exit with code 1 and print to stderr.

Notes

• This is a community-built CLI (pip install phog-cli), not an official PostHog product.
• PostHog has US (us.posthog.com) and EU (eu.posthog.com) cloud regions — the CLI auto-detects on login.
• Config stored at ~/.config/posthog-cli/config.json (600 permissions).
• Environment variables override config: POSTHOG_API_KEY, POSTHOG_HOST, POSTHOG_PROJECT_ID.