---
title: "calicoctl validate"
description: "Reference for the calicoctl validate command in Calico Open Source, used to check resource manifests for syntax and schema errors."
product: "Calico Open Source"
version: "3.33 (latest)"
section: "Reference"
canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/validate"
---

# calicoctl validate

This sections describes the `calicoctl validate` command.

Read the [calicoctl command line interface user reference](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/calicoctl/overview.md) for a full list of calicoctl commands.

> **SECONDARY:** The validate command works offline and does not require access to a datastore. It validates resource structure, syntax, and Calico-specific validation rules without applying changes to the cluster.

## Displaying the help text for 'calicoctl validate' command

Run `calicoctl validate --help` to display the following help menu for the command.

```text
Validate one or more Calico resources from a file, directory, or stdin without
applying them. Validation runs entirely offline - checking syntax, structure,
and schema without touching the datastore - so it's useful for catching errors
before you apply resources to a cluster.

Usage:
  calicoctl validate [flags]

Examples:
  # Validate resources in a file.
  calicoctl validate -f ./policy.yaml

Flags:
  -c, --config string      Path to the file containing connection configuration in YAML or JSON format. (default "/etc/calico/calicoctl.cfg")
  -f, --filename string    Filename to use to create/apply/replace/delete the resource. Use '-' for stdin.
  -h, --help               help for validate
  -n, --namespace string   Namespace of the resource.
  -R, --recursive          Process the filename specified in -f recursively.
      --skip-empty         Do not error if files contain no data.

Global Flags:
      --allow-version-mismatch   Allow client and cluster versions mismatch
      --context string           The name of the kubeconfig context to use
  -l, --log-level string         Set the log level (panic, fatal, error, warn, info, debug) (default "panic")
```

### Examples

1. Validate a single policy file.

   ```bash
   calicoctl validate -f ./network-policy.yaml
   ```

   Results indicate successful validation.

   ```text
   Successfully validated 1 'NetworkPolicy' resource(s)
   ```

2. Validate resources from stdin.

   ```bash
   cat resources.yaml | calicoctl validate -f -
   ```

   Results indicate successful validation of multiple resources.

   ```text
   Successfully validated 3 resource(s)
   ```

3. Validate all resource files in a directory recursively.

   ```bash
   calicoctl validate -f ./calico-resources/ --recursive
   ```

   Results indicate validation failure.

   ```text
   Failed to validate 'NetworkPolicy' resource: [error with field Selector = 'invalid@selector' (Reason: failed to validate Field: Selector because of Tag: selector )]
   ```

4. Validation with invalid selector example.

   ```bash
   calicoctl validate -f policy-with-invalid-selector.yaml
   ```

   Results show Calico-specific validation error.

   ```text
   Failed to validate 'NetworkPolicy' resource: [error with field Selector = 'ga@rb"ag'e' (Reason: failed to validate Field: Selector because of Tag: selector )]
   ```

5. Validation with invalid IP address example.

   ```bash
   calicoctl validate -f bgppeer-with-invalid-ip.yaml
   ```

   Results show IP validation error.

   ```text
   Failed to validate 'BGPPeer' resource: [error with field PeerIP = '999.999.999.999' (Reason: failed to validate Field: PeerIP because of Tag: IP:port )]
   ```

### Options

```text
  -f, --filename string    Filename to use to create/apply/replace/delete the resource. Use '-' for stdin.
  -R, --recursive          Process the filename specified in -f recursively.
      --skip-empty         Do not error if files contain no data.
```

## See also

- [Installing calicoctl](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/operations/calicoctl/install.md)
- [Resources](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/overview.md) for details on all valid resources, including file format and schema
- [NetworkPolicy](https://docs.tigera.io/calico/latest/reference/resources/networkpolicy.md) for details on the Calico selector-based policy model