aas-ctl

name	aas-ctl
description	Interact with Asset Administration Shells (AAS) via the aas-ctl CLI. Use when: querying AAS repositories, listing shells or submodels, showing submodel elements, searching shells by criteria, creating or updating submodels, navigating AAS structures, configuring AAS profiles, or performing REST operations (GET/POST/PUT/PATCH) on AAS endpoints.
argument-hint	Describe what AAS data you want to access or modify

AAS-CTL — Asset Administration Shell CLI

A command-line tool for browsing and interacting with Asset Administration Shell (AAS) repositories. Enables efficient access to shells, submodels, and submodel elements.

When to Use

• List, show, or search Asset Administration Shells and Submodels
• Navigate AAS structures interactively via discovery
• Create, update, or patch submodels and submodel elements
• Configure connections to different AAS repository environments
• Perform raw REST operations against AAS API endpoints

Prerequisites

• aas-ctl must be installed and available in PATH
• An active profile must be configured pointing to a running AAS repository

Command Reference

Configuration

# List all profiles (active profile is highlighted)
aas-ctl config list

# Create a new profile
aas-ctl config create <profile-name>

# Switch active profile
aas-ctl config select <profile-name>

# Show config file location (~/.aas/config.json)
aas-ctl config show

A profile stores: name, base URL, and ports for Discovery (8084), Registry (8082), SmRegistry (8083), Repository (8081), SmRepository (8081), ConceptDescriptions (8081).

Listing

# List all shells
aas-ctl aas list

# List all submodels
aas-ctl sm list

# List submodels of a specific shell
aas-ctl sm list --aas <Identifier>

# Shortcut: list everything (shells)
aas-ctl list

Showing Details

# Show a shell and its submodels
aas-ctl aas show <Identifier>

# Show a submodel and its elements
aas-ctl sm show <Identifier>

# Show a specific submodel element by IDShort
aas-ctl sm show <SmIdentifier> --elementId <ElementIDShort>

# Show a specific submodel element by index
aas-ctl sm show <SmIdentifier> --elementIdx <Index>

# Show only the value of an element
aas-ctl sm show <SmIdentifier> --elementId <ElementIDShort> --value

# Auto-detect shell or submodel
aas-ctl show <Identifier>

Identifiers can be a global ID (e.g., urn:example:aas#001) or an IDShort (e.g., MyShell).

Searching / Filtering

# Find shells containing a submodel with a given IDShort
aas-ctl search --sm <SubmodelIDShort>

# Chain filters (AND logic): submodel + element + value
aas-ctl search --sm <SmIDShort> --elementId <ElementIDShort> --value <Value>

# Return only IDs of matching shells
aas-ctl search --sm <SmIDShort> --id

Discovery (Interactive Navigation)

# Start from a shell — lists its submodels
aas-ctl discover <ShellIdentifier>

# Navigate deeper — list submodel elements
aas-ctl discover <ShellIdentifier> <SubmodelIdentifier>

# Navigate to a specific element
aas-ctl discover <ShellIdentifier> <SubmodelIdentifier> <ElementIDShort>

Raw REST Operations

# GET any endpoint
aas-ctl get <endpoint>

# POST data (or pipe from stdin)
aas-ctl post <endpoint> '<json-data>'
cat data.json | aas-ctl post <endpoint>

# PUT data (or pipe from stdin)
aas-ctl put <endpoint> '<json-data>'

# PATCH data
aas-ctl patch <endpoint> '<json-data>'

Output Flags (mutually exclusive)

Flag	Effect
--id	Print only the global ID
--url	Print only the URL
--json	Print full JSON representation

Output Formats

Default format:

urn:example:aas#001<AssetAdministrationShell> MyShell

Verbose/show format (Submodel):

urn:example:sm#001<Submodel> DataSM
 0  Temperature<Property>: 35.5<xs:string>
 1  Pressure<MultiLanguageProperty>: 1.2<en>
 2  Range<Range>: 0.0-100.0<xs:float>

Typical AI Agent Workflows

Read a specific value from an AAS

aas-ctl sm show <SubmodelIDShort> --elementId <ElementIDShort> --value

Find all shells matching criteria

aas-ctl search --sm <SubmodelIDShort> --elementId <ElementIDShort> --value <TargetValue> --id

Get full JSON for programmatic processing

aas-ctl sm show <SubmodelIdentifier> --json

Update a submodel element value

aas-ctl patch <endpoint> '<new-value>'