Are you looking for something like this?:
$ # We enable the netconf trace log
$ cat confd.conf | grep -B 2 -A 2 netconf.trace
<netconfTraceLog>
<enabled>true</enabled>
<filename>./netconf.trace</filename>
<format>pretty</format>
</netconfTraceLog>
$ # Start ConfD
$ confd -c confd.conf --addloadpath $CONFD_DIR/etc/confd
$ cat copy-running-to-ftp-url.xml
<copy-config>
<target>
<url>ftp://root:mypassword@192.168.171.44/my-running-config.xml</url>
</target>
<source>
<running/>
</source>
</copy-config>
$ # Now let's say ConfD is running on my local host and I have the user and password set to admin/admin
$ netconf-console --host=127.0.0.1 --user=admin --password=admin --rpc=copy-running-to-ftp-url.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id="1">
<ok/>
</rpc-reply>
$ # ConfD's running datastore has now copied to a my-running-config.xml file on the 192.168.171.44 FTP server home dir
$ # The NETCONF communication that was handled by the netconf-console tool (that comes with ConfD):
$ cat netconf.trace
**> sess:28 new session
13-Jan-2018::04:10:07.798 **< sess:28 write:
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capabilities>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.1</capability>
...
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:url:1.0?scheme=ftp,sftp,file</capability>
...
</capabilities>
<session-id>28</session-id>
</hello>
13-Jan-2018::04:10:07.808 **> sess:28 read:
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capabilities>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.1</capability>
</capabilities>
</hello>
]]>]]>
#144
<rpc message-id="1" xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
#147
<copy-config>
<target>
<url>ftp://root:mypassword@192.168.171.44/my-running-config.xml</url>
</target>
<source>
<running/>
</source>
</copy-config>
#6
</rpc>
13-Jan-2018::04:10:07.904 **< sess:28 write:
<rpc-reply message-id="1" xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<ok/>
</rpc-reply>
##
#147
<rpc message-id="0" xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<close-session/>
</rpc>
13-Jan-2018::04:10:07.907 **< sess:28 write:
<rpc-reply message-id="0" xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<ok/>
</rpc-reply>
**< sess:28 session closed