Remote Access

These commands give you direct access to running containers and their attached services. All of them use the linked service context or accept an explicit workspace/project/env/service argument.

SSH

Open an interactive SSH session to a running container:

ancla ssh

Connect to a specific process type (defaults to web):

ancla ssh --process worker

With an explicit service path:

ancla ssh my-ws/my-project/production/my-service

The CLI requests ephemeral credentials from the Ancla API and launches ssh with them. You need OpenSSH installed locally. No SSH keys to manage; the platform handles authentication.

Shell

Similar to ssh, but uses the platform’s exec API directly. No SSH client needed.

ancla shell

Choose the process type and shell command:

ancla shell -p worker
ancla shell -c /bin/bash

Default process type is web. Default command is /bin/sh.

Database shell

Connect to your service’s primary database:

ancla dbshell

The CLI detects the database engine and launches the right client:

• PostgreSQL → psql
• MySQL → mysql
• Other → prints the connection URL for manual use

Credentials come from the platform. You need psql or mysql installed locally.

ancla dbshell my-ws/my-project/production/my-service

With --json, the command prints connection details without opening a shell (passwords omitted):

ancla dbshell --json

{
  "engine": "postgresql",
  "host": "db-abc123.ancla.internal",
  "port": 5432,
  "name": "myservice_production",
  "user": "myservice"
}

Cache management

View cache service details:

ancla cache info

Engine: redis
Host:   cache-abc123.ancla.internal
Port:   6379

Open an interactive Redis CLI session:

ancla cache cli

For Redis, this launches redis-cli with the right host, port, and auth. For other cache engines, it prints the connection URL.

Flush the cache:

ancla cache flush

This prompts for confirmation. Skip it with --yes:

ancla cache flush --yes

Prerequisites

These commands launch local client binaries. Make sure you have the right ones installed:

Command	Requires
ancla ssh	ssh (OpenSSH)
ancla dbshell	psql or mysql
ancla cache cli	redis-cli (for Redis)

All other commands (shell, cache info, cache flush) work without extra dependencies.