# The Standalone ESC CLI Retired: Use pulumi env

DevFeed: [The Standalone ESC CLI Retired: Use pulumi env](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-standalone-esc-cli-retired-use-pulumi-env-19000.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.pulumi.com/blog/esc-cli-retiring-use-pulumi-env/>)

Author: Boris Schlosser

Published: 2026-07-22T00:00:00Z

Content type: release

Language: en

Sources: [Pulumi](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/pulumi.md>)

Topics: [Command-line interface](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cli.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration.md>), [Loop Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/loop-engineering.md>)

Tags: [cli](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cli.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/configuration.md>), [esc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/esc.md>), [features](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/features.md>), [migration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/migration.md>), [platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/platform.md>), [product](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product.md>), [release](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/release.md>), [secrets](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/secrets.md>), [with](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/with.md>)

## AI overview

Pulumi is retiring the standalone Pulumi ESC CLI and recommends using the Pulumi CLI's pulumi env commands instead. The ESC repository has been archived, while the command implementation remains in the Pulumi CLI. Users of the standalone CLI should migrate because it will not receive the latest features.

## Source excerpt

Pulumi ESC CLI v0.26.0 is the latest standalone release. We encourage users to use the Pulumi CLI instead. The ESC repository has been archived and the code now lives under pulumi. Why are we making this change Pulumi ESC is the best way to store and manage configuration and secrets in your Pulumi programs and while you can certainly use ESC to store secrets and configurations for your applications or to manage your AI agents' credentials, it's still a core feature of Pulumi Cloud, and we want to make sure we deliver a consistent experience across our entire suite. In addition to consistency, ESC and the Pulumi CLI share a lot of capabilities to interface to Pulumi Cloud and we want to make it easier and simpler for our customers: it's now easier to understand which Pulumi organization you are working with, which user is logged in, etc. Playing nicer with humans and AI agents A single CLI means one binary to install, one login to manage, and one place to look things up. This simplicity is beneficial whether the operator is a person or an agent. AI agents love code, and they love CLIs. By unifying the Pulumi CLI and ESC we offer a single place to look up operations around your Pulumi programs. Agents can now reason better about where to store configuration and secrets, without being confused by multiple CLI options that interface against the same service. Faster improvements With a shared CLI, any improvement to account management is automatically delivered to both: Pulumi and ESC users. At the same time, both benefit from ESC improvements and new features from day 1. ESC is a core component of our platform; a separate interface no longer makes sense. The same code all along If you're wondering what actually changes under the hood: nothing about how the commands work. The pulumi env commands were never a reimplementation -- the Pulumi CLI has built them from the ESC CLI's own code since ESC's first release, which is why the same command surface has always been availab