truelist-cli

The official command-line tool for Truelist.io email validation. Validate single emails, bulk CSV files, or pipe from stdin.

Start free — 100 validations + 10 enhanced credits, no credit card required. Get your API key → Works with the free plan.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install Truelist-io-Email-Validation/tap/truelist

Go install

go install github.com/Truelist-io-Email-Validation/truelist-cli@latest

Binary download

Download the latest release from the Releases page and add it to your PATH.

Quick Start

# Set your API key (get one at https://truelist.io)
truelist config set api-key YOUR_API_KEY

# Validate a single email
truelist validate user@example.com

# Validate a CSV file
truelist validate --file contacts.csv

# Pipe emails from stdin
cat emails.txt | truelist validate

Commands

truelist validate <email>

Validate a single email address.

truelist validate user@gmail.com

✓ user@gmail.com
  State:       ok
  Sub-state:   email_ok
  Domain:      gmail.com
  Canonical:   user

Flags:

Flag	Description
--json	Output result as JSON
-q, --quiet	Output only the state (ok, email_invalid, accept_all)

truelist validate --file <path>

Validate emails from a CSV file. The CLI auto-detects the email column, or you can specify it with --column.

truelist validate --file contacts.csv
truelist validate --file contacts.csv --column email_address
truelist validate --file contacts.csv --output results.csv

Outputs a new CSV with truelist_state, truelist_sub_state, truelist_domain, truelist_verified_at, and truelist_suggestion columns appended.

Flags:

Flag	Description
-f, --file	Path to the input CSV file
-o, --output	Output file path (default: <input>_validated.csv)
-c, --column	Name of the email column in the CSV

truelist validate (stdin)

Pipe emails from stdin, one per line.

cat emails.txt | truelist validate
echo "user@example.com" | truelist validate

truelist whoami

Check your API key and display account information.

truelist whoami

Account Info
  Email:      you@company.com
  Name:       Your Name
  UUID:       abc-123
  Time Zone:  America/New_York
  Plan:       pro

truelist config set api-key <key>

Save your API key to the config file.

truelist config set api-key tk_live_abc123

truelist version

Print the CLI version.

truelist version

Configuration

The CLI looks for your API key in the following order:

1. Config file at ~/.config/truelist/config.yaml
2. Environment variable TRUELIST_API_KEY

Set via config file:

truelist config set api-key YOUR_API_KEY

Set via environment variable:

export TRUELIST_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY

Output Formats

Human-readable (default)

✓ user@gmail.com
  State:       ok
  Sub-state:   email_ok
  Domain:      gmail.com
  Canonical:   user
  Verified At: 2026-02-21T10:00:00.000Z

JSON (--json)

{
  "address": "user@gmail.com",
  "domain": "gmail.com",
  "canonical": "user",
  "mx_record": null,
  "first_name": null,
  "last_name": null,
  "email_state": "ok",
  "email_sub_state": "email_ok",
  "verified_at": "2026-02-21T10:00:00.000Z",
  "did_you_mean": null
}

Quiet (--quiet)

ok

Validation States

State	Description
ok	The email is deliverable
email_invalid	The email is not deliverable
accept_all	Domain accepts all addresses (catch-all)

Sub-states

Sub-state	Description
email_ok	Email is valid and deliverable
is_disposable	Temporary/disposable email address
is_role	Role-based address (e.g., info@, admin@)
failed_mx_check	Domain has no valid MX records
failed_spam_trap	Address is a known spam trap
failed_no_mailbox	Mailbox does not exist
failed_greylisted	Server temporarily rejected the request
failed_syntax_check	Email address has invalid syntax

Rate Limits

The CLI respects Truelist API rate limits (10 requests/second). Bulk validation automatically throttles requests.

Development

# Build
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Build for all platforms
make build-all

Getting Started

Sign up for a free Truelist account to get your API key. The free plan includes 100 validations and 10 enhanced credits — no credit card required.

License

MIT - see LICENSE for details.