Channels subscribe

Use the ably channels subscribe command to subscribe to messages on one or more Ably Pub/Sub channels.

Synopsis

ably channels subscribe <channel-names> [options]

Arguments

channel-names

Required

One or more channel names to subscribe to.

Options

--cipher

A decryption key to use for decrypting messages on the channel.

--delta

Enable delta compression for messages. Defaults to false.

--sequence-numbers

Display sequence numbers for messages. Defaults to false.

--duration | -D

The duration in seconds to subscribe for before automatically unsubscribing.

--rewind

The number of messages to rewind when subscribing. Defaults to 0.

--client-id

A client ID to use when subscribing.

--json

Output results as compact JSON. Mutually exclusive with --pretty-json.

--pretty-json

Output results in formatted JSON. Mutually exclusive with --json.

--verbose | -v

Enable verbose logging. Can be combined with --json or --pretty-json.

Examples

Subscribe to a single channel:

ably channels subscribe my-channel

Subscribe to multiple channels:

ably channels subscribe my-channel another-channel

Subscribe for a specific duration:

ably channels subscribe my-channel --duration 60

Subscribe with rewind to receive recent messages:

ably channels subscribe my-channel --rewind 10

Subscribe with a cipher key for encrypted messages:

ably channels subscribe my-channel --cipher "my-secret-key"

Subscribe with delta compression for bandwidth-efficient updates:

ably channels subscribe --delta my-channel

Subscribe using an API key environment variable:

ABLY_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY" ably channels subscribe my-channel

Subscribe and output messages in JSON format:

ably channels subscribe my-channel --json

Subscribe and output messages in formatted JSON:

ably channels subscribe my-channel --pretty-json

See also

• Channels — Explore all ably channels commands.
• CLI reference — Full list of available commands.