Generate new identifiers of various types.
idt gen <TYPE> [OPTIONS]
Argument Description
TYPEID type to generate (uuid, uuidv7, ulid, nanoid, snowflake, etc.)
Option Description
-n, --count <N>Number of IDs to generate (default: 1) -f, --format <FORMAT>Output encoding format -T, --template <TPL>Wrap each ID in a template string ({} = placeholder) -o, --output <FORMAT>Output format (json, yaml, toml) --no-newlineDon’t print trailing newline (single ID only)
Option Description
--uuid-version <V>UUID version (1, 4, 6, 7) --namespace <NS>Namespace for UUID v3/v5 (dns, url, oid, x500, or UUID) --name <NAME>Name for UUID v3/v5
Option Description
--alphabet <CHARS>Custom alphabet --length <N>Custom length (default: 21)
Option Description
--preset <NAME>Snowflake preset (twitter, discord, instagram, sonyflake, mastodon) --epoch <EPOCH>Custom epoch (discord, twitter, or milliseconds since Unix epoch) --field <NAME=VALUE>Set a Snowflake field value (e.g., --field shard_id=42) --machine-id <N>Machine/worker ID (0-31 for Twitter/Discord, 0-65535 for Sonyflake) --datacenter-id <N>Datacenter ID (0-31, Twitter/Discord layout only)
Note: --preset and --epoch cannot be used together.
Option Description
--prefix <PREFIX>Type prefix for TypeID
Type Alias Description
uuid- UUIDv4 (random) by default uuidv1- UUIDv1 (timestamp + MAC) uuidv4- UUIDv4 (random) uuidv6- UUIDv6 (reordered timestamp) uuidv7- UUIDv7 (Unix timestamp + random) uuid-nil- Nil UUID (all zeros) uuid-max- Max UUID (all ones) ulid- ULID nanoid- NanoID snowflake- Snowflake ID
# Generate a random UUID (v4)
idt gen uuid
# Generate UUIDv7 (time-sortable)
idt gen uuidv7
# Generate ULID
idt gen ulid
# Generate NanoID
idt gen nanoid
# Generate Snowflake ID
idt gen snowflake
# Generate 10 UUIDs
idt gen uuid -n 10
# Generate 100 ULIDs
idt gen ulid -n 100
# UUIDv1 (timestamp-based)
idt gen uuidv1
# UUIDv6 (reordered timestamp)
idt gen uuidv6
# UUIDv7 (Unix timestamp)
idt gen uuidv7
# Or use --uuid-version flag
idt gen uuid --uuid-version 7
# Custom length
idt gen nanoid --length 32
# Custom alphabet (hex characters only)
idt gen nanoid --alphabet "0123456789abcdef"
# Both
idt gen nanoid --length 16 --alphabet "0123456789ABCDEF"
# Use a preset (layout + epoch + timestamp resolution)
idt gen snowflake --preset twitter
idt gen snowflake --preset discord
idt gen snowflake --preset instagram --field shard_id=42
idt gen snowflake --preset sonyflake # 10ms timestamp resolution
idt gen snowflake --preset mastodon
# With machine and datacenter IDs
idt gen snowflake --preset twitter --machine-id 1 --datacenter-id 2
# Backward-compatible epoch flag
idt gen snowflake --epoch discord
idt gen snowflake --epoch twitter
idt gen snowflake --epoch 1420070400000
# Generate and output as hex
idt gen uuid -f hex
# Generate and output as Base64
idt gen uuidv7 -f base64
# Save to file
idt gen uuid -n 1000 -o uuids.txt
# Single ID as JSON
idt gen uuid --output json
# Output: {"id":"550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"}
# JSON shorthand
idt gen uuid --json
idt gen uuid -j
# Multiple IDs as JSON array
idt gen uuid -n 3 --output json
# Output: ["550e8400-...", "6ba7b810-...", "7c9e6679-..."]
# YAML output
idt gen uuid --output yaml
# Output: id: '550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000'
# TOML output
idt gen uuid --output toml
# Output: id = "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
# Wrap in SQL statement
idt gen uuidv7 -T 'INSERT INTO users (id) VALUES ("{}");'
# JSON fixture
idt gen uuidv7 -n 3 -T '{"id": "{}"}'
# Combined with format conversion
idt gen uuidv7 --format hex -T 'id={}'
Note: --template cannot be used with structured output formats (--json, --output). If the template does not contain {}, a warning is printed to stderr.
# Useful for scripting
ID=$(idt gen uuid --no-newline)
echo "Generated: $ID"