The command line

cohostly is how you put an app online and look after it from your own computer. Think of it as a remote control for your projects. You press a button on your keyboard, and the platform does the work far away.

Terminal

npm install -g cohostly
cohostly

Run with no arguments, it prints the list of commands and exits with code 1. That is normal. It is the only built-in help there is.

Careful The command has no --help, no -h and no --version. Typing one of them prints Unknown command: --help, then the command list, and exits with code 1. Use the list you get from plain cohostly, and these pages.

Two names, one program

platform is the same program under its older name. Both names work. Some messages the CLI prints still say platform ..., for example Run "platform login". When you see that, type cohostly instead. The result is the same.

What you need

Node.js 20 or later.
macOS or Linux, Intel or Arm, for snapshot and check. On Windows those two stop with Capture runs on macOS and Linux. On Windows, use WSL2. The other commands do not use the capture tool.
Docker, only for cohostly check, which builds your app on your machine to prove it works. Nothing else needs it.
Railpack, the open-source tool that plans builds. The CLI downloads it once, the first time snapshot or check needs it, and checks it against a pinned checksum.

First five minutes

Terminal

cohostly login                   # approve a code in your browser
cohostly new express hello       # a tiny starter app in ./hello
cd hello
cohostly deploy                  # build it and put it online
cohostly open                    # print the address and open it

Every command, by what you want to do

Sign in and keyslogin, logout, whoami, and what the saved key can do.Start a project from a templatenew and its six templates.Put an app onlinedeploy, manifest check, upload limits, .env files, approvals.Pack and inspectpack, inspect and deploying a sealed .cohostly file.Deploy what already runssnapshot, check, and deploying from the .cohostly/ folder.Look after projectsls, open, logs.Versions and rollbackversions, promote, rollback.Backup and restorebackup, backups, restore.Share and name itshare, domains, ship.Secretssecrets list, set, import, delete, share, request.Dev tokenstoken create --dev, list, revoke.AI keysai-keys list, set, check, delete.Build and test locallydev, types, bindings check.Costcost, a plain-words estimate of AI and hosting spend.Schedules and runschedules and run, the jobs on a clock.Approvalsapprovals, the inbox of requests waiting on a person.Exit codes and environment variableswhat each exit code means, every variable the CLI reads, and what Fatal: means.

Habits shared by all commands

Project name

Most commands act on one project. Some take it as --project <name>, some as a plain word (cohostly open hello), some as both. Each page shows the exact form.

--json

These commands can print a machine-readable result: logs, share, domains, schedules (and run), ship, approvals, cost. The others cannot.

Secret values

Commands that take a secret (secrets set, ai-keys set) read it at a hidden prompt, or from a pipe. They never take it as an argument. The one exception is login --token, which puts a key on the command line.

Plain error text

Errors say what to fix. A failed deploy also prints a stable Code: such as build_failed_dependency (see troubleshooting).

Questions

Only deploy ever asks a question. Everything else acts at once. That includes restore, promote, rollback, secrets delete and share remove. Read the command before you press Enter.

Aliases

ls is the same as list. run <schedule> is the same as schedules run.

Which projects you can reach

The saved key is tied to one account. With it, cohostly ls lists the projects of that account only. A project that someone shared with you by invitation, from a different account, does not appear in the CLI. See sign in and keys for why.