Commands

The conda command is the primary command-line interface for managing conda environments and packages. You can use conda commands to create environments, install packages, update packages, remove packages, search for packages, and inspect your current conda configuration.

Common commands

Some of the most commonly used conda commands include:

conda create

Creates a new conda environment.

$ conda create --name myenv python=3.12

conda install

Installs packages into the active environment or into a specified environment.

$ conda install numpy pandas

conda update

Updates packages in an environment.

$ conda update numpy

conda remove

Removes packages from an environment.

$ conda remove numpy

Other commands are available for managing channels, listing environments, searching for packages, cleaning package caches, and viewing conda configuration.

Tip

You can abbreviate many frequently used command options that are preceded by two dashes (--) to one dash and the first letter of the option. For example, --name and --envs can be written as -n and -e.

Getting help for commands

Use --help or -h to see help for conda itself or for an individual command.

To see top-level conda help:

$ conda --help

To see help for a specific command:

$ conda install --help

or:

$ conda install -h

For full usage of each command, including abbreviations, see commands. You can see the same information at the command line by viewing the command-line help.

Plugin commands

Conda plugins can add their own commands or subcommands to the conda command-line interface. For example, a plugin may add a command for a custom workflow, package source, or environment management task.

Plugins that add conda commands must be installed in the base environment, where conda itself is installed. You can use conda self install to install a plugin into the base environment. Installing a plugin into another environment does not make its command available to the main conda command.