The Drush command-line tool can utilize the code found in Drupal to interact with it. The config-export command replicates the functionality provided by the Configuration management module's full site export. However, you do not need the Configuration management module enabled for the command to work. The command will extract the available site configuration and write it to a directory, which is unarchived.

The config-import command parses the files in a directory. It will make an attempt to run a difference check against the YAML files like the Configuration management module's synchronize overview form does. It will then import all the changes.