twistcli

Prisma Cloud ships a command-line configuration and control tool known as twistcli. It is supported on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Installing twistcli

The twistcli tool is delivered with every Prisma Cloud release. It is statically compiled, so it does not have any external dependencies, and it can run on any Linux host. No special installation is required. To run it, simply copy it to a host, and give it executable permissions. You need sudo privileges to run the twistcli command.

The twistcli tool is available from the following sources.

• You can download twistcli from the Prisma Cloud Console UI. Go to Manage > System > Utilities.

  

  Choose the correct architecture and OS when downloading the twistcli command-line utility.
• You can download it from the API, which is a typical use case for automated workflows. For more information, see the /api/v1/util endpoint.

The requirements for running twistcli are:

• The host running twistcli must be able to connect to the Prisma Cloud Console over the network.
• For both image scanning and host scanning, Docker Engine must be installed on the executing machine.

Connectivity to Console

Most twistcli functions require connectivity to Console. All example commands specify a variable called COMPUTE_CONSOLE, which represents the address for your Console.

To get the address for your Console, go to Runtime Security > Manage > System > Utilities, and copy the string under Path to Console.

Functions

The twistcli tool supports the following functions:

• console — Installs and uninstalls Console into a cluster. Kubernetes and OpenShift are supported. You can also export Kubernetes or OpenShift deployment files in YAML format.
• defender — Installs and uninstalls Defender into a cluster. Kubernetes and OpenShift are supported. Defender is installed as a daemon set (Kubernetes, OpenShift) which means one Defender is always automatically deployed to each node in the cluster. You can also export a Kubernetes or OpenShift deployment file in YAML format.
• hosts — Scans hosts for vulnerabilities and compliance issues.
• images — Scans container images for vulnerabilities and compliance issues. Because it runs from the command line, you can easily integrate Prisma Cloud’s scanning capabilities into your CI/CD pipeline.
• intelligence — Retrieves the latest threat data from the Prisma Cloud Intelligence Stream, and push those updates to a Prisma Cloud installation running in an air-gapped environment.
• tas — Scans VMware Tanzu droplets.
• app-embedded — Embed the App Embedded Defender into a Dockerfile.
• restore — Restore Console to the state stored in the specified backup file. An automated backup system (enabled by default) creates and maintains daily, weekly, and monthly backups. Additional backups can be made at any point in time from the Console UI.
• serverless — Scans serverless functions for vulnerabilities.
• support — Streamlines the process of collecting and sending debug information to Prisma Cloud’s support team. Collects log data from a node and uploads it to Prisma Cloud’s support area.

Capabilities

The twistcli tool offers feature parity across all supported operating systems, with a few exceptions. The following table highlights where functions are disabled, or work differently, on a given platform.

twistcli	Platform
Command	Subcommand	Linux	Linux ARM64	macOS	macOS ARM64	Windows
console	export	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
install	Yes	No	No	No	No
uninstall	Yes	No	No	No	No
defender	export	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
install	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
uninstall	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
hosts	scan	Yes	Yes	No1	No	No
images	scan	Yes	Yes	Yes2	Yes	Yes3
intelligence	upload	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
download	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
tas	scan	Yes	No	No	No	No
app-embedded	embed	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
restore		Yes	No	No	No	No
serverless	scan	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
support	dump	Yes	No	No4	No	No4
upload	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
tas	scan	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
waas	openapi-scan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

¹ Prisma Cloud doesn’t support deployment to macOS hosts, so there is no support for scanning macOS hosts.

² Scans Linux images on macOS hosts. Docker for Mac must be installed.

³ Twistcli supports scanning Windows images on Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 hosts. If you need to scan Linux images on a Windows machine, you must install Docker Machine on Windows with the Microsoft Hyper-V driver. Twistcli does not yet support scanning Linux images on Windows hosts using Docker for Windows.

⁴ The support dump function collects Console’s logs when Console malfunctions. Copy twistcli to host where Console runs, then execute twistcli support dump. Defender logs can be retrieved directly from the Console UI under Manage > Defenders > Manage.

⁵ IaC scanning is only available with Prisma Cloud Enterprise Edition.

For a comprehensive list of supported options for each subcommand, run:

$ twistcli <COMMAND> --help

Install support

Support for installing Console and Defender via twistcli is supported on several cluster types. The following table highlights the available support:

twistcli	Platform
Command	Subcommand	Stand-alone1	Kubernetes	OpenShift	Amazon ECS	Windows
console	export	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
install	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
uninstall	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
defender	export	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
install	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
uninstall	No	Yes	Yes	No	No

¹ Stand-alone refers to installing an instance of Console or Defender onto a single host that isn’t part of a cluster. For stand-alone installations of Console, use the twistlock.sh script to install Onebox.

The twistcli console install command for Kubernetes and OpenShift combines two steps into a single command to simplify how Console is deployed. This command internally generates a YAML configuration file and then creates Console’s resources with kubectl create in a single shot. This command is only supported on Linux. Use it when you don’t need a copy of the YAML configuration file. Otherwise, use twistcli console export.