The g2-cli tool handles all USB communication with the G2 hardware. All G2 responses go to stdout as JSON; all commands are sent via stdin.
Command Arguments Description connect Connect to G2 disconnect Close connection startup Full startup (init + device + all slots + names) device Show device info list-devices List USB devices (debug)
Command Arguments Description get-patch<slot>Get patch from slot as JSON get-patch-file<slot> [file]Save patch as .pch2 file get-perf-file[file]Save current performance as .prf2 file upload-patch<slot> <filepath>Upload .pch2 to slot upload-perf<filepath>Upload .prf2 performance select-patch<slot> <bank> <loc>Load bank patch into slot (bank 1–32, loc 1–127) select-perf<bank> <loc>Load bank performance store-patch<slot> <bank> <loc>Store slot’s patch to bank location (slot 0-3, use slot 4 for performances) clear-patch<patch\|performance> <bank> <loc>Clear a single bank location clear-bank<patch\|performance> <bank>Clear all entries in a bank (locations 1–128) reload-names Re-fetch patch/performance name list from G2 and emit names event list[type] [bank <n>]List patches/performances (optionally filter by type or bank) get-perf-settings Get current performance settings set-perf-mode<patch\|performance>Switch between patch and performance mode set-perf-name<name>Set performance name set-patch-name<slot> <name>Set patch name set-patch-description<slot> <hexdata>Set patch description (hex-encoded) set-synth-settings<json>Set all synth settings from JSON
Command Arguments Description slot<A\|B\|C\|D>Change active slot variation<1–8> [slot]Select variation for slot set-slot-enabled<slot> <0\|1>Enable/disable a slot set-slot-key<slot> <0\|1>Assign/unassign keyboard to slot set-slot-hold<slot> <0\|1>Set slot hold mode set-slot-range<slot> <lower> <upper>Set note range for slot (0–127) set-range-enable<0\|1>Enable/disable slot range
Command Arguments Description voice-mode<slot> <0–3>Set voice mode (0=poly 1=mono 2=legato 3=slgt) voice-count<slot> <1–32>Set voice count
Command Arguments Description set-master-clock-run<0\|1>Start/stop master clock set-master-clock-bpm<30–240>Set master clock BPM
Command Arguments Description add-module<slot> <va\|fx> <type-id> <module-id> <col> <row> <color> <num-modes> [modes] <num-params> [params] <name>Add module to patch del-module<slot> <va\|fx> <module-id>Delete module (delete cables first) move-module<slot> <va\|fx> <module-id> <col> <row>Move module to grid position set-module-color<slot> <va\|fx> <module-id> <color:0–24>Set module color set-module-name<slot> <va\|fx> <module-id> <name>Set module label set-module-mode<slot> <va\|fx> <module-id> <param-idx> <value>Set module mode parameter
Command Arguments Description add-cable<slot> <va\|fx> <color:0–6> <from-mod> <0\|1> <from-con> <to-mod> <0\|1> <to-con>Add cable between jacks del-cable<slot> <va\|fx> <from-mod> <0\|1> <from-con> <to-mod> <0\|1> <to-con>Delete cable set-cable-color<slot> <va\|fx> <color:0–6> <from-mod> <0\|1> <from-con> <to-mod> <0\|1> <to-con>Set cable color
Command Arguments Description set-param<slot> <va\|fx\|patch> <module-id> <param-idx> <value> <variation>Set module parameter value set-param-label<slot> <va\|fx> <module-id> <param-idx> <label-idx> <label>Set parameter label copy-variation<slot> <from> <to>Copy all parameter values from one variation to another (0-based indices)
Command Arguments Description assign-midicc<slot> <va\|fx\|patch> <module-id> <param-idx> <cc-num>Assign MIDI CC to a module parameter (CC 0–119) deassign-midicc<slot> <cc-num>Remove a MIDI CC assignment assign-midicc-batch<slot> <loc> <mod> <param> <cc> [<loc> <mod> <param> <cc> ...]Assign multiple CCs in one USB frame deassign-midicc-batch<slot> <cc> [<cc> ...]Remove multiple CC assignments in one USB frame
Command Arguments Description get-resources<slot>Get CPU/memory resource usage daemon Persistent: watch events + accept JSON commands on stdin seq"<cmd1>" "<cmd2>" ...Run multiple commands sequentially debug<on\|off>Enable/disable debug timing output (emits JSON debug events to stdout)
The daemon maintains a persistent connection: it streams watch events to stdout and accepts JSON commands on stdin.
Opens a split-pane tmux session — left pane: daemon output; right pane: command shell with autocomplete.
slot A # switch focus to slot A
get-patch A # read patch from slot A
variation 4 B # select variation 4 on slot B
verbose off # suppress LED/volume updates
set-perf-mode patch # switch to patch mode
stop # kill daemon
start # restart daemon
Type command name + TAB to autocomplete. Arguments also autocomplete: get-patch <TAB> → A B C D.
# Terminal 1 — start daemon reading from a named pipe
mkfifo /tmp/g2-cmd
./build/bin/g2-cli daemon < /tmp/g2-cmd
# Terminal 2 — keep the pipe open and send commands
exec 3>/tmp/g2-cmd
echo '{"id":1,"cmd":"slot","args":["B"]}' > &3
echo '{"id":2,"cmd":"variation","args":["4","B"]}' > &3
echo '{"id":3,"cmd":"device"}' > &3
echo '{"id":5,"cmd":"verbose","args":["off"]}' > &3
exec 3>&- # close when done (causes daemon to exit cleanly)
g2-cli watch # monitor G2 messages (one-shot)
g2-cli daemon # persistent: watch (stdout) + commands on stdin
Nord Modular G2 Editor — open source, cross-platform.