diff --git a/swh/search/cli.py b/swh/search/cli.py
index 9621d84..1c99852 100644
--- a/swh/search/cli.py
+++ b/swh/search/cli.py
@@ -1,77 +1,87 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2019  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import functools
 
 import click
 
 from swh.core import config
 from swh.core.cli import CONTEXT_SETTINGS
 from swh.journal.cli import get_journal_client
 
 from . import get_search
 from .journal_client import process_journal_objects
 from .api.server import load_and_check_config, app
 
 
 @click.group(name='search', context_settings=CONTEXT_SETTINGS)
 @click.option('--config-file', '-C', default=None,
               type=click.Path(exists=True, dir_okay=False,),
               help="Configuration file.")
 @click.pass_context
 def cli(ctx, config_file):
     '''Software Heritage Search tools.'''
     ctx.ensure_object(dict)
 
     conf = config.read(config_file)
     ctx.obj['config'] = conf
 
 
+@cli.command('initialize')
+@click.pass_context
+def initialize(ctx):
+    """Creates Elasticsearch indices."""
+    search = get_search(**ctx.obj['config']['search'])
+    search.initialize()
+    print('Done.')
+
+
+
 @cli.group('journal-client')
 @click.pass_context
 def journal_client(ctx):
     """"""
     pass
 
 
 @journal_client.command('objects')
 @click.option('--max-messages', '-m', default=None, type=int,
               help='Maximum number of objects to replay. Default is to '
                    'run forever.')
 @click.pass_context
 def journal_client_objects(ctx, max_messages):
     """Listens for new objects from the SWH Journal, and schedules tasks
     to run relevant indexers (currently, only origin)
     on these new objects."""
     client = get_journal_client(ctx, object_types=['origin'])
     search = get_search(**ctx.obj['config']['search'])
 
     worker_fn = functools.partial(
         process_journal_objects,
         search=search,
     )
     nb_messages = 0
     try:
         while not max_messages or nb_messages < max_messages:
             nb_messages += client.process(worker_fn)
             print('Processed %d messages.' % nb_messages)
     except KeyboardInterrupt:
         ctx.exit(0)
     else:
         print('Done.')
 
 
 @cli.command('rpc-serve')
 @click.argument('config-path', required=1)
 @click.option('--host', default='0.0.0.0', help="Host to run the server")
 @click.option('--port', default=5010, type=click.INT,
               help="Binding port of the server")
 @click.option('--debug/--nodebug', default=True,
               help="Indicates if the server should run in debug mode")
 def rpc_server(config_path, host, port, debug):
     """Starts a Software Heritage Indexer RPC HTTP server."""
     api_cfg = load_and_check_config(config_path, type='any')
     app.config.update(api_cfg)
     app.run(host, port=int(port), debug=bool(debug))