consul/website/content/commands/leave.mdx

---
layout: commands
page_title: 'Commands: Leave'
description: >-
  The `leave` command triggers a graceful leave and shutdown of the agent. It is
  used to ensure other nodes see the agent as left instead of failed. Nodes that
  leave will not attempt to re-join the cluster on restarting with a snapshot.
---

# Consul Leave

Command: `consul leave`

Corresponding HTTP API Endpoint: [\[PUT\] /v1/agent/leave](/consul/api-docs/agent#graceful-leave-and-shutdown)

The `leave` command triggers a graceful leave and shutdown of the agent.
It is used to ensure other nodes see the agent as "left" instead of
"failed". Nodes that leave will not attempt to re-join the cluster
on restarting with a snapshot.

For nodes in server mode, the node is removed from the Raft peer set
in a graceful manner. This is critical, as in certain situations a
non-graceful leave can affect cluster availability.

Depending on how many Consul servers are running, running `consul leave` on a server explicitly can reduce the quorum
size (which is derived from the number of Consul servers, see
[deployment_table](/consul/docs/architecture/consensus#deployment_table)).
Even if the cluster used `bootstrap_expect` to set a number of servers and thus quorum size initially,
issuing `consul leave` on a server will reconfigure the cluster to have fewer servers.
This means you could end up with just one server that is still able to commit writes because the quorum size for
1-server setup is only 1, but those writes might be lost if that server fails before more are added.

The table below shows this command's [required ACLs](/consul/api-docs/api-structure#authentication). Configuration of
[blocking queries](/consul/api-docs/features/blocking) and [agent caching](/consul/api-docs/features/caching)
are not supported from commands, but may be from the corresponding HTTP endpoint.

| ACL Required  |
| ------------- |
| `agent:write` |

## Usage

Usage: `consul leave [options]`

#### API Options

@include 'http_api_options_client.mdx'