CLI behavior in CI

The upstream Using the CLI guide documents every command and flag, plus the daemon and GUI features. This page covers only what matters when the CLI runs in a workflow step. Throughput flags such as --max-active-transfers and --threads are in Upload and download faster.

Commands used in workflows

filemoverexpress upload <transfer-profile> <paths...>
filemoverexpress download <transfer-profile> <local-dest> <s3-prefix>
filemoverexpress validate-credentials <transfer-profile>
filemoverexpress inventory <transfer-profile> --output-format csv

<transfer-profile> is the profile the action writes when bucket is set. It's default unless transfer-profile says otherwise.

Upload paths

filemoverexpress upload default payload --prefix ci/run1

Path form	Resulting keys
Relative, such as payload	Directory structure kept: ci/run1/payload/a.txt, ci/run1/payload/sub/big.txt
Absolute, such as /data/payload	Stripped to the longest common directory of the arguments
Mixed relative and absolute	Fatal error
Containing ..	Fatal error
Doesn't exist	WARNING No files found for upload, exit code 0

Run uploads from the directory that should be the root of the key structure, and pass relative paths.

Download layout

Download a prefix shows how downloaded keys map to local paths.

Log format

Each line starts with a fixed-width level and a timestamp:

INFO   [2026-11-01 08:39:58] Validated credentials for e2e
WARNING[2026-11-01 08:40:03] No files found for upload
ERROR  [2026-11-01 08:40:11] Failed to transfer file ...
FATAL  [2026-11-01 08:40:15] ...

Exit codes

Situation	Logged as	Exit code
Every file transferred	INFO	0
Some or all files failed, such as NoSuchBucket or AccessDenied	ERROR ... Failed to transfer file	0
Upload path doesn't exist	WARNING No files found for upload	0
validate-credentials can't list the bucket	WARNING ... Unable to list objects	0
Unknown transfer profile	FATAL	1
Mixed absolute and relative paths, or .. in a path	FATAL	non-zero

Because failed transfers exit 0, scan the output as shown in Fail the job on transfer errors. Exit codes covers the reasoning.

Known warnings

upload and download log WARNING ... Invalid configuration: max-active-transfers=0 on every run where --max-active-transfers isn't passed, even though the configuration holds a value. In 1.1.1 the check reads the flag's own value, which defaults to 0, before the configuration is applied (from reading the upstream source, not from observed behavior of the applied limit). The warning doesn't fail the step. Pass --max-active-transfers to silence it, for example --max-active-transfers 100, the default. Upload and download faster covers the flag.

Files under FME_CONFIG_DIR

File	Contents
configuration.yaml	Transfer profiles and every other setting. The CLI fills in defaults and rewrites it on start.
checksum-cache.db	Cached file hashes, when checksums are on
logs/daemon.log	Log of the local transfer service

With FME_CONFIG_DIR set, the CLI writes nothing under the home directory.