{"id":13130,"date":"2026-10-27T06:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/cosmosdb\/?p=13130"},"modified":"2026-10-27T06:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T13:31:06","slug":"inspecting-local-data-with-azure-cosmos-db-shell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/cosmosdb\/inspecting-local-data-with-azure-cosmos-db-shell\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspecting Local Data with Azure Cosmos DB Shell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explore local data from the terminal, with the emulator as your development environment.<\/em><\/p>\n

Azure Cosmos DB Shell<\/strong><\/a> gives me a direct way to work with my data from the terminal. I can navigate databases and containers, query documents, and read a specific item without opening the portal or adding temporary application code. That is useful while I am getting an application ready to ship. A value looks wrong, a document is missing, or I want to check one partition. Instead of guessing what was stored, I can inspect it.<\/p>\n

The Azure Cosmos DB Linux Emulator<\/strong><\/a> provides the local environment for this walkthrough. In the previous post in this series<\/a>, we used it to make local development and CI repeatable. This installment adds the shell so we can inspect that local data directly before deployment.<\/p>\n

I am reusing FleetCharge<\/a>‘s dispatch records as the example data. The focus is the shell: connect, navigate, inspect, query, and point-read. We are troubleshooting during development, not investigating a production incident.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/cosmosdb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2026\/10\/cosmos-shell-walkthrough-captioned.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/p>\n

Open Azure Cosmos DB Shell<\/h2>\n

Shell is the inspection tool for this walkthrough, but it is not required to run FleetCharge or its CI tests. Choose one of these installation methods.<\/p>\n

Install as a .NET global tool<\/h3>\n

The official installation guide<\/a> includes a .NET global-tool option. This method requires the .NET SDK 10.0 or later<\/strong>. Install the tool and check its version:<\/p>\n

dotnet tool install --global CosmosDBShell --prerelease\r\ncosmosdbshell --version\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
If you already installed the global tool for the previous post, skip the install command and check its version. Start the shell with:<\/p>\n
cosmosdbshell\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Download a self-contained binary<\/h3>\n
Alternatively, get a self-contained binary from the official releases<\/a>. This option includes its runtime, so no separate .NET installation is needed. For this Windows x64 walkthrough, I used the 1.1.280-preview Windows x64 ZIP<\/a>. Extract it and open PowerShell in the extracted directory containing CosmosDBShell.exe<\/code>. Check the version and start the shell:<\/p>\n
.\\CosmosDBShell.exe --version\r\n.\\CosmosDBShell.exe\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
For other platforms or a source build, follow the shell’s installation guidance<\/a> and choose the matching release asset. The source-build path requires the .NET SDK; it is not an extra step in the ZIP-based path above. The examples below use commands verified with Shell 1.1.280-preview. The print <item-id> <partition-key><\/code> command reads one item; the application and its data model have not changed.<\/p>\n
Give the shell a local data source<\/h2>\n
The emulator lets me try these operations locally, without connecting to a live Azure account. The FleetCharge sample<\/a> provides the same seed records as the previous post. If you followed that walkthrough, reuse your checkout: no application code, fixture, schema, or CI workflow changes are required. We are adding an inspection tool, not building a new application.<\/p>\n
For the walkthrough, I need:<\/p>\n