Neo4j Admin and Neo4j CLI

Introduction

neo4j-admin and neo4j are command-line tools for managing and administering a Neo4j DBMS. Both are installed as part of the product and can be executed with a number of commands. The neo4j commands are equivalent to the most important commands in the neo4j-admin server category.

Both neo4j-admin and neo4j commands support the --help option, which prints the command’s usage and options, and the --version option, which prints the version of the command. All admin command options can also be provided in a file and passed to the command using the @ prefix. This is useful when the command line becomes too long to manage. For example, neo4j-admin database import full @/path/to/your/<args-filename> mydb. For more information, see Picocli → AtFiles official documentation.

All admin commands must be invoked with the same user as Neo4j runs as. This guarantees that Neo4j will have full rights to start and work with the database files you use.

The neo4j-admin tool

The neo4j-admin command-line tool is located in the bin directory.

General synopsis

neo4j-admin has the following general synopsis:

neo4j-admin [category] [command] [subcommand]

neo4j-admin commands per category

All administration commands, except for help and version, are organized into the following categories:

  • dbms - DBMS-wide (for single and clustered environments) administration tasks

  • server - server-wide administration tasks

  • database - database-specific administration tasks

  • backup - backup-specific tasks

  • fleet - fleet-wide administration tasks

Table 1. Available commands per category
Category Command Description

dbms

set-default-admin

Sets the default admin user when no roles are present.

set-initial-password

Sets the initial password of the initial admin user (neo4j).

For details, see Set an initial password.

unbind-system-db

Enterprise Edition
Removes and archives the cluster state of the system database so the instance can rebind to a new cluster state of the system database.

For details, see Unbind the system database.

server

console

Starts DBMS server in the console.

get-id

Displays the server ID of an instance. The server ID can be used to specify a server in Cypher commands.

license

Accept the license agreement. Possible options are --accept-commercial for the commercial or --accept-evaluation for the evaluation license. This command must be run before starting the Neo4j Enterprise Edition. Starting from Neo4j 2025.04, when using an evaluation license, the command prints information about the days remaining in the trial period. If the evaluation license has expired, the command prints a warning with the number of days since the license expired. neo4j-admin server license also logs information about license status in the neo4j.log file on startup.

memory-recommendation

Prints recommendations for Neo4j heap and page cache memory usage.

migrate-configuration

Migrates server configuration from a previous version.

For details, see Migrate configurations.

report

Produces a ZIP/TAR of the most common information needed for remote assessments.

restart

Restarts the server daemon.

start

Starts the server as a daemon.

status

Gets the status of the server.

stop

Stops the server daemon.

unbind

Enterprise Edition
Removes cluster state data from a stopped Neo4j server.

For details, see Unbind a server.

validate-config

Performs configuration validation without starting the server.

For details, see Validate configurations.

windows-service

A command whose subcommands can be used to install, uninstall, and update Neo4j as a Windows service.

database

aggregate-backup

Enterprise Edition Deprecated in 2025.01
Aggregates a chain of backup artifacts into a single artifact.

Replaced by neo4j-admin backup aggregate.

backup

Enterprise Edition
Performs an online backup from a running Neo4j enterprise server.

For details, see Back up an online database

check

Checks the consistency of a database.

For details, see Check database consistency.

copy

Enterprise Edition
Copies a database and optionally applies filters.

For details, see Copy a database store.

dump

Dumps a database into a single-file archive.

For details, see Back up an offline database.

import

Imports a collection of CSV files.

For details, see Import.

info

Prints information about a Neo4j database store.

For details, see Display store information.

load

Loads a database from an archive created with the dump command.

For details, see Restore a database dump.

migrate

Migrates a database from one store format to another or between versions of the same format.

For details, see Migrate a database.

restore

Enterprise Edition
Restores a backed up database.

For details, see Restore a database backup.

upload

Pushes a local database to a Neo4j Aura instance.

For details, see Upload to Neo4j Aura.

Enterprise Edition
backup

inspect

Lists the metadata stored in the header of backup files.

aggregate

Introduced in 2025.01
Aggregates a chain of backup artifacts into a single artifact.

Infinigraph
validate

Validates a collection of sharded property database backups.

fleet

discover

Introduced in 2026.05
Listen for Neo4j fleet discovery broadcasts on the local network and list all discovered Neo4j servers. For more information, see Discover local servers.

The neo4j tool

The neo4j command-line tool is located in the bin directory.

General synopsis

neo4j has the following general synopsis:

neo4j [command]

neo4j commands

The command is an alias for the most important commands in the neo4j-admin server category.

Table 2. Equivalence between neo4j and neo4j-admin commands
neo4j command Equivalent neo4j-admin command

neo4j console

neo4j-admin server console

neo4j restart

neo4j-admin server restart

neo4j start

neo4j-admin server start

neo4j status

neo4j-admin server status

neo4j stop

neo4j-admin server stop

neo4j windows-service

neo4j-admin server windows-service

Version command

Version can be obtained by invoking the version command, --version command option, or its short alternative -V, on the root level of both neo4j and neo4j-admin commands. For example, neo4j --version, neo4j-admin -V, neo4j-admin version, or neo4j version.

Help command

Help can be obtained by invoking the help command, --help command option, or its short alternative -h, with both neo4j and neo4j-admin commands. --help and -h options can be invoked on any level, namely root, category, command, and subcommand. For example, neo4j --help, neo4j [command] -h, neo4j-admin -h, neo4j-admin [category] --help, or neo4j-admin [category] [command] [subcommand] -h.

The help command can be invoked on any level except the last one, which means command-level for commands that do not have subcommands or subcommand level for commands with subcommands. The help command also accepts a parameter. For example, neo4j help, neo4j-admin help, neo4j-admin [category] help, neo4j-admin help [category], neo4j help [command], or neo4j-admin [category] [command ] help [subcommand].

Limitations

When using both a multi-value option and a positional parameter, the multi-value option is "greedy" and pulls in the next positional parameter via its convertor. This is a limitation of the underlying library, Picocli, and is not specific to Neo4j Admin. See Picocli → Variable Arity Options and Positional Parameters official documentation for more information.

Configuration

Administration operations use the configuration specified in the neo4j.conf file. Sharing configuration between the DBMS and its administration tasks makes sense as most settings are the same. In some cases, however, it is better to override some settings specified in neo4j.conf by configuring the tasks (instead of updating the config settings in the neo4j.conf file) because administration tasks generally use fewer resources than the DBMS. For instance, if the page cache of your DBMS is configured to a very high value in neo4j.conf, and you want to override this because the admin tasks like backup do not need so much memory, you provide configuration for the admin tasks instead of updating the page cache setting in the neo4j.conf file. neo4j-admin database import does not use server.memory.pagecache.size for import memory sizing. Instead, use --max-off-heap-memory to tune the command’s off-heap working memory. See Import → Import memory controls for details.

There are several options for overriding settings specified in the neo4j.conf file using administration tasks:

  • --additional-config option — almost all administration commands support the --additional-config option, which you can use to provide a path (full path, local path, or symlinks) to a file with additional configuration. The file format should be the same as neo4j.conf (or neo4j-admin.conf). The file must be readable by the user running the admin command.

  • neo4j-admin.conf — a configuration file located in the same directory as the neo4j.conf file, which you can use to provide administration-task-specific settings.

  • Some commands also support a command-specific configuration file. Such files are also looked for in the same directory as the neo4j.conf file. The following table lists command-specific configuration files:

    Table 3. Command-specific configuration files
    Command Configuration file

    neo4j-admin database backup

    neo4j-admin-database-backup.conf

    neo4j-admin database check

    neo4j-admin-database-check.conf

    neo4j-admin database copy

    neo4j-admin-database-copy.conf

    neo4j-admin database dump

    neo4j-admin-database-dump.conf

    neo4j-admin database import

    neo4j-admin-database-import.conf

    neo4j-admin database load

    neo4j-admin-database-load.conf

    neo4j-admin database migrate

    neo4j-admin-database-migrate.conf

    neo4j-admin database restore

    neo4j-admin-database-restore.conf

All four configuration sources are optional and settings for administration commands are resolved from them with the following descending priority:

  1. --additional-config option

  2. command-specific configuration file

  3. neo4j-admin.conf

  4. neo4j.conf

The commands for launching the DBMS, neo4j start and neo4j console, must be configured only in the neo4j.conf file.

Environment variables

Neo4j Admin can also use the following environment variables:

Environment variable Description

NEO4J_DEBUG

Set to anything to enable debug output.

NEO4J_HOME

Neo4j home directory.

NEO4J_CONF

Path to the directory that contains neo4j.conf.

HEAP_SIZE

Set JVM maximum heap size during command execution. Takes a number and a unit, for example, 512m.

JAVA_OPTS

Additional JVM arguments.

If set, HEAP_SIZE and JAVA_OPTS override all relevant settings specified in the configuration file.

Exit codes

When neo4j and neo4j-admin finish as expected, they exit with code 0. A non-zero exit code means something undesired happened during command execution.

Table 4. Exit codes
Exit code Description

0

Successful execution.

1

The command failed to execute.

3

The command failed to execute because the database is not running.

64

The command was invoked with incorrect options/parameters. See the printed usage for details.

70

An exception was thrown, not handled otherwise.

The non-zero exit code can contain further information about the error, for example, see the backup command’s exit codes.

Command-line completion

From 5.4 onwards, Neo4j supports command-line completion.

  • For Unix-based systems, the tab completion applies to the neo4j and neo4j-admin command line interfaces in terminals such as Bash and ZSH.

  • For RPM and DEB packaged installations, the necessary files are automatically installed in bash-completion.

  • For tarball installations, the files are located in the bin/completion/ directory with detailed instructions for manual installation.

Glossary

allocator

A component in the cluster that allocates databases to servers according to the topology constraints specified and an allocation strategy.

asynchronous replication

Asynchronous replication is used by secondary copies to poll for new transactions, which means they cannot be guaranteed to have received the most recent transactions. This enables efficient scale-out of read-performance.

Aura instance

A fully-managed DBMS represented by a single instance ID, that is running in the Neo4j Aura cloud.

auto-commit transaction

An automatically committed transaction that contains a single query.

Bolt protocol

Bolt is a protocol used for interaction between Neo4j instances and drivers.

bookmark

A marker the client can request from the cluster to ensure that it is able to read its own writes so that the application’s state is consistent and only databases that have a copy of the bookmark are permitted to respond.

category (Bloom)

A category is based on a node label and is defined in a Perspective as a way of visually distinguishing nodes with the same label(s).

causal consistency

All servers in a cluster agree on the order in which transactions take place. The position of a server on the causal chain can be guaranteed using a bookmark.

cluster

A Neo4j DBMS that spans multiple servers working together to increase fault tolerance and/or read scalability. Databases on a cluster may be configured to replicate across servers in the cluster thus achieving read scalability or high availability.

client application

Software that interacts with a Neo4j server.

commit

A commit is the successful completion of a transaction, which ensures durability of any changes made. For more details, visit Operations Manual → Transaction management.

composite database

Composite databases are the means to access partitioned graph data with a single Cypher query.

constraint

Constraints are sets of data modeling rules that ensure the data is consistent and reliable.

Cypher®

Neo4j’s graph query language.

data model

A data model defines how information is organized in a database. A good data model will make querying and understanding your data easier. In Neo4j, the data models have a graph structure.

database

A database is a container used by the DBMS to manage and store graph data. The physical structure of data is controlled by the database.

database vs graph

Databases are the physical containers of graph data. Graphs are the logical structure of data in Neo4j.

Database Management System

Database Management System, or DBMS, capable of managing multiple databases. A DBMS may run on a single server, or span several servers configured as a cluster.

database schema

The prescribed property existence and datatypes for nodes and relationships.

deallocate

An act of removing a database from a server or a server from a cluster without loss of data or reduced fault tolerance.

degree (of a node)

The number of relationships of a specific node; loops are counted twice.

disaster recovery

A manual intervention to restore availability of a cluster, or databases within a cluster.

driver

A software library that provides access to Neo4j from a particular programming language.

election

In the event that the Raft leader becomes unresponsive, followers automatically trigger an election and vote for a new leader.

entity

A node or a relationship.

expression (Cypher)

A component of a Cypher query which produces values. It may be used in projections, as a predicate, or when setting properties on graph elements.

fabric

Fabric is the architectural design of a unified system that provides a single access point to local or distributed graph data.

fault tolerance

A guarantee that a cluster can maintain a database’s persistence and availability in the event of one or more servers failing.

follower

A primary copy of a database acting as a follower, receives and acknowledges synchronous writes from the leader.

Generative AI (GenAI)

A type of artificial intelligence (AI) system that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts.

graph

A logical representation of a set of nodes where some pairs are connected by relationships.

index

Data structure that improves read performance of a database.

knowledge graph

A specific type of graph that has an organizing principle so that a user (or a computer system) can reason about the underlying data. The organizing principle provides an additional layer of structure that adds context to support knowledge discovery.

label

Marks a node as a member of a named and indexed subset. A node may be assigned zero or more labels.

leader

A single primary copy of a database is designated as the leader. It receives all write transactions from clients and replicates writes synchronously to followers and asynchronously to secondary copies of the database.

main database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database(s) containing the user’s data. Can exist in the same Neo4j deployment as the tool asset database.

motif

A description of a specific pattern within a graph.

node

A node represents an entity or discrete object in your graph data model. Nodes can be connected by relationships, hold data in properties, and are classified by labels.

operator

A symbol representing a mathematical or logical operation.

parameter

Named value provided when running a Cypher statement.

path

A sequence of nodes and the relationships connecting them, that does not contain duplicate relationships. Several paths can match a pattern.

pattern

A specific arrangement of nodes and relationships that can be matched in a graph. A pattern follows a motif.

perspective (Bloom)

A Perspective defines a certain business view or domain that can be found in the target Neo4j graph. A single Neo4j graph can be viewed through different Perspectives, each tailored for a different business purpose.

primary

A copy of the database that is able to process write transactions and is eligible to be elected as a leader. It participates in fault tolerant writes as it is part of the majority required to acknowledge and commit write transactions.

primary vs secondary

In a cluster, databases can operate in either primary or secondary mode. Primary databases are able to process write and read transactions, ensuring fault tolerance. Secondary databases are replicated asynchronously from primaries, and their main purpose is to provide read scaling within the cluster.

project (Aura)

An isolated environment in the unified Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Preceded by tenant in the classic Aura console.

property

Properties are key-value pairs that are used for storing data on nodes and relationships.

query (Cypher)

A statement that retrieves or writes information to a database.

Raft group

A group of servers that are participating in hosting a particular database in primary mode.

Raft group member

A server that is participating in a Raft group. A server can be a member of one or more groups.

Raft log

A shared log between all Raft group members that is guaranteed to be consistently updated and viewed by those members. The log contains both database data and operational state of the Raft group.

Raft protocol

The networking mechanism that enables a database to replicate its data across multiple servers to give high availability for accessing the data and high durability to the data stored.

read scaling

Distributing query load by creating additional database copies hosted in secondary mode (read-only).

relationship

A relationship represents a connection between nodes in your graph data model. Relationships connect a source node to a target node, hold data in properties, and are classified by type.

secondary

An asynchronously replicated copy of the database that provides read scaling within the cluster.

seed

A seed is a database dump or a full backup used to create a database on a cluster. This is sometimes called seeding.

server

A physical machine, a virtual machine, or a container running an instance of Neo4j. Servers can be standalone or part of a cluster.

session

A causally linked sequence of transactions.

session consistency

An alternative name for Neo4j’s causal consistency.

standalone

A single server running Neo4j and not part of a cluster.

synchronous replication

Synchronous replication requires the leader primary to replicate a transaction and block the commit until a quorum of the follower primaries acknowledges that the transaction is successfully replicated. Once the transaction is replicated, the commit is allowed to proceed. This ensures data durability and consistency within the cluster.

system database

A database used by Neo4j to store system information.

tenant (Aura)

An isolated environment in the classic Aura console that contains its own database instances, configurations, and resources. Replaced by project in the unified Aura console.

tool asset database

In terms of Neo4j Enterprise Studio, the database where tools' assets are stored. This can be in the same Neo4j deployment as the main database(s) or in a separate deployment.

topology

A configuration that describes how the copies of a database should be spread across the servers in a cluster, see primary mode and secondary mode.

transaction

A transaction comprises a unit of work performed against a database. It is treated in a coherent and reliable way, independent of other transactions. Transactions comply with the ACID consistency model (atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable).