Download a Dataset

If your project has a saved version, you can download the images and annotations for that version using the command line.

Command

roboflow version download <workspace/project/version> -f <format> -l <location>

Or use the shorthand alias:

roboflow download <workspace/project/version> -f <format> -l <location>

Where:

• <format> is one of the supported dataset formats (like voc, yolov8, coco, darknet, etc). Run roboflow version download --help for the full list.

• <location> is the local path to download to (optional - defaults to current directory)

• The dataset URL uses resource shorthand: workspace/project/version, project/version, or just specify -p project and a version number.

Examples

Download a dataset version in VOC format:

roboflow download -f voc -l ./my-dataset my-workspace/hand-gestures/1

Download using project shorthand (uses your default workspace):

roboflow download -f yolov8 hand-gestures/1

Download publicly available datasets from Roboflow Universe:

roboflow download -f coco joseph-nelson/chess-pieces-new/25

JSON Output

For scripting and automation, use --json to get structured output:

roboflow download hand-gestures/1 -f yolov8 --json

{
  "workspace": "my-workspace",
  "project": "hand-gestures",
  "version": 1,
  "format": "yolov8",
  "location": "./hand-gestures-1"
}