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Last Updated: 3/9/2026

CLI

Generate Nano IDs from the command line.

Basic Usage

npx nanoid

Output:

LZfXLFzPPR4NNrgjlWDxn

Options

--size / -s

Specify ID length:

npx nanoid --size 10

Output:

L3til0JS4z

--alphabet / -a

Custom alphabet (requires --size):

npx nanoid --alphabet abc --size 15

Output:

bccbcabaabaccab

--help / -h

Show help:

npx nanoid --help

Examples

Generate Multiple IDs

for i in {1..5}; do npx nanoid; done

Output:

V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT
Uakgb_J5m9g-0JDMbcJqL
IRFa-VaY2b_Z5jdHi6Bm
...

Hex IDs

npx nanoid --alphabet 0123456789abcdef --size 16

Output:

4f90d13a42b8c7e1

Numeric IDs

npx nanoid --alphabet 0123456789 --size 12

Output:

849201736584

Use Cases

Shell Scripts

#!/bin/bash
 
# Generate unique filename
FILE="backup-$(npx nanoid --size 10).tar.gz"
tar -czf "$FILE" /data

CI/CD

# .github/workflows/deploy.yml
steps:
  - name: Generate deployment ID
    run: |
      DEPLOY_ID=$(npx nanoid)
      echo "DEPLOY_ID=$DEPLOY_ID" >> $GITHUB_ENV

Database Seeds

# Generate test data
for i in {1..100}; do
  ID=$(npx nanoid)
  echo "INSERT INTO users (id, name) VALUES ('$ID', 'User $i');"
done > seed.sql

See Also

ReactNodejs