Complete NVIDIA NGC CLI keyboard shortcuts and commands reference — 14 shortcuts across 2 categories. Quick reference cheat sheet for Windows & Mac.
ngc is NVIDIA's command-line interface to the NGC registry - the catalog that serves GPU-optimized container images, models, and Helm charts. The 26 commands here are taken from the official NGC CLI commands reference and cover the workflows the CLI is actually reached for: authenticating once, then pulling and pushing artifacts.
Setup is a single command: ngc config set stores your API key and default org and team, and everything after that inherits the context. The two flags worth internalizing early are --format_type json, which turns any tabular output into something scriptable, and the org/[team/]name target format with * and ? wildcards - org/image:* lists every tag of an image, and version ranges like [1-5] work on charts.
The registry family does the heavy lifting. ngc registry image pull and push assume the latest tag when none is given; info takes --layers and --history for inspecting what a tag actually contains; and pull with --scan downloads the security scan report as CSV instead of the image itself - a detail that saves a large download when the report is all you need. If you run DGX systems, this CLI pairs naturally with nvidia-smi and dcgmi on the node side.
| Shortcut | Action | Details |
|---|---|---|
| ngc config set | Set the configuration in the user settings file | Use optional arguments to choose what will be set; --api_key sets the API key non-interactively. |
| ngc config current | List the current configuration | Shows the org, team, and format currently in effect. |
| ngc config clear | Clear the configuration stored in the user settings file | Removes saved settings. |
| ngc config clear-cache | Clear cached values | Clears the CLI's cache. |
| Shortcut | Action | Details |
|---|---|---|
| ngc registry image list | List container images accessible by the user | Wildcards * and ? are allowed; use org/image:* to list all tags. --signed shows only signed images. |
| ngc registry image info | Display information about an image repository or tagged image | --layers, --history, and --details expand the output; --scan shows scan details of a tagged image. |
| ngc registry image pull | Pull a container image from the NGC image registry | If no tag is provided, latest is assumed. --scan downloads the image scan report as a CSV instead of pulling. |
| ngc registry image push | Push a container image to the NGC image registry | If no tag is provided, latest is assumed. -y auto-confirms tagging. |
| ngc registry image create | Create a top-level metadata repository in the image registry | Metadata such as --desc, --overview, and --logo can be set at creation. |
| ngc registry image remove | Remove an image repository or a specific tagged image | Wildcards * and ? are allowed; -y skips the confirmation prompt. |
| ngc registry image scan | Scan a container image from the NGC image registry | Triggers a security scan for the targeted image tag. |
| ngc registry image set-latest | Set the specified tag as the latest tag of the repository | Format: org/[team/]image:tag. |
| ngc registry image sign | Have the image cryptographically signed by NVIDIA | ngc registry image publickey returns the public key for local signature validation. |
| Shortcut | Action | Details |
|---|---|---|
| ngc registry model list | List models in the registry | Same org/[team/]name targeting and wildcard rules as images. |
| ngc registry model info | Display information about a model | Model subcommands also include download-version, download-version-signature, upload-version, and commit-version. |
| ngc registry model download-version | Download a model version | Listed among the model subcommands alongside download-version-signature for signed models. |
| ngc registry chart list | List Helm charts | Target format: org/[team/]chart_name[:version]; name and version support * and ? wildcards and character ranges like [1-5]. |
| ngc registry chart info | Retrieve metadata for a chart or chart version | --files lists the files of a version in addition to details. |
| ngc registry chart pull | Download a chart version | If no version is specified, the latest version is targeted. --dest sets the download directory. |
| ngc registry chart push | Push (upload) a chart | --source points at the packaged chart directory; --dry-run lists file paths, total size, and count without uploading. |
| Shortcut | Action | Details |
|---|---|---|
| ngc registry collection list | Display available collections in the registry | Wildcards target org/[team/]collection_name namespaces. |
| ngc registry collection info | Display information about a collection | Shows the artifacts the collection contains. |
| ngc registry collection find | List collections containing a specified artifact | Artifact types: MODEL, CHART, RESOURCE, IMAGE. |
| --format_type ascii|csv|json | Output format for any command | Default ascii; only commands producing tabular data support csv. |
| --org <name> / --team <name> | Set the org and team context for a command | --org no-org and --team no-team override other sources; default comes from the current configuration. |
| --debug | Enable debug mode | Available on every NGC CLI command. |
Run ngc config set and supply your NGC API key, org, and team. The values are stored in the user settings file; ngc config current shows what is in effect, and ngc config clear removes it.
ngc registry image pull org/[team/]image:tag. If no tag is provided, latest is assumed. Use ngc registry image list org/image:* to see every available tag first.
Add --format_type json (or csv for tabular commands) to any command. The default is ascii tables; json is the reliable choice for scripting.
ngc registry image scan triggers a security scan for the targeted tag, while ngc registry image pull --scan downloads an existing scan report as a CSV file instead of pulling the image.
Open your assistant with this page preloaded as the source — great for follow-up questions like "which of these work in other apps?"