# Tagging applications
<a name="applications-tagging"></a>

This topic explains the benefits of tagging your Elastic Beanstalk applications. It also provides instructions to create and manage application tags. Tags are key-value pairs associated with Amazon resources. For information about Elastic Beanstalk resource tagging, use cases, tag key and value constraints, and supported resource types, see [Tagging Elastic Beanstalk application resources](applications-tagging-resources.md).

You can specify tags when you create an application. In an existing application, you can add or remove tags, and update the values of existing tags. You can add up to 50 tags to each application.

## Adding tags during application creation
<a name="applications-tagging.create"></a>

When you use the Elastic Beanstalk console to [create an application](applications.md), you can specify tag keys and values in the **Create New Application** dialog box.

If you use the EB CLI to create an application, use the `--tags` option with **[eb init](eb3-init.md)** to add tags.

```
~/workspace/my-app$ eb init --tags mytag1=value1,mytag2=value2
```

With the Amazon CLI or other API-based clients, add tags by using the `--tags` parameter on the **[create-application](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/reference/elasticbeanstalk/create-application.html)** command.

```
$ aws elasticbeanstalk create-application \
      --tags Key=mytag1,Value=value1 Key=mytag2,Value=value2 \
      --application-name my-app --version-label v1
```

## Managing tags of an existing application
<a name="applications-tagging.manage"></a>

You can add, update, and delete tags in an existing Elastic Beanstalk application.

**To manage an application's tags in the Elastic Beanstalk console**

1. Open the [Elastic Beanstalk console](https://console.amazonaws.cn/elasticbeanstalk), and in the **Regions** list, select your Amazon Web Services Region.

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Applications**, and then choose your application's name from the list.

1. Choose **Actions**, and then choose **Manage tags**.

1. Use the on-screen form to add, update, or delete tags.

1. To save the changes choose **Apply** at the bottom of the page.

If you use the EB CLI to update your application, use **[eb tags](eb3-tags.md)** to add, update, delete, or list tags.

For example, the following command lists the tags in an application.

```
~/workspace/my-app$ eb tags --list --resource "arn:aws-cn:elasticbeanstalk:us-west-2:my-account-id:application/my-app"
```

The following command updates the tag `mytag1` and deletes the tag `mytag2`.

```
~/workspace/my-app$ eb tags --update mytag1=newvalue --delete mytag2 \
      --resource "arn:aws-cn:elasticbeanstalk:us-west-2:my-account-id:application/my-app"
```

For a complete list of options and more examples, see `eb tags`.

With the Amazon CLI or other API-based clients, use the **[list-tags-for-resource](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/reference/elasticbeanstalk/list-tags-for-resource.html)** command to list the tags of an application.

```
$ aws elasticbeanstalk list-tags-for-resource --resource-arn "arn:aws-cn:elasticbeanstalk:us-west-2:my-account-id:application/my-app"
```

Use the **[update-tags-for-resource](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/reference/elasticbeanstalk/update-tags-for-resource.html)** command to add, update, or delete tags in an application.

```
$ aws elasticbeanstalk update-tags-for-resource \
      --tags-to-add Key=mytag1,Value=newvalue --tags-to-remove mytag2 \
      --resource-arn "arn:aws-cn:elasticbeanstalk:us-west-2:my-account-id:application/my-app"
```

Specify both tags to add and tags to update in the `--tags-to-add` parameter of **update-tags-for-resource**. A nonexisting tag is added, and an existing tag's value is updated.

**Note**  
To use some of the EB CLI and Amazon CLI commands with an Elastic Beanstalk application, you need the application's ARN. You can retrieve the ARN by using the following command.  

```
$ aws elasticbeanstalk describe-applications --application-names my-app
```