Nhost CLI

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Launch Blazingly Fast Development Environments For Your Nhost Stack

Contents

• Installation
  • Installing On Windows
  • OS & Platform Support
• Getting Started
• Front-end Support
• Usage
  • Blank Local app
  • Existing Remote app
  • Environment Variables
  • Debugging
• Serverless Functions
• Migrate To v2
• Dependencies
• Community

Documentation

• Advanced Usage
• Command Docs
• Changelog
• Contributing
• Conduct

Installation

• Check your current CLI version by running nhost version
• If your version is less than v0.5.0, then download the latest version by executing the following in your terminal:

1. Remove the installed CLI: npm uninstall nhost or nhost uninstall
2. Install the new one:

sudo curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nhost/cli/main/get.sh | bash

If your installed version is >= v0.5.0, then your CLI version already supports the upgrade command to automatically check the latest available version of the CLI and install it depending on your operating system and architecture. To use this, run the following:

sudo nhost upgrade

Installing On Windows

If you have curl and Windows Subsytem for Linux in your windows environment, you can safely use the above command, and it should download the .exe variant of the binary in your current working directory.

However, if you do not have the above dependencies, then you can manually download the latest release binary depending on your platform architecture from here.

OS & Platform Support

• Linux
• MacOS (including Apple Silicon)
• Windows

Getting Started

To get the list of all the supported commands, use:

nhost --help

Complete documentation for all commands is available here.

Frontend Support

The single nhost command will optionally offer you the option of cloning frontend templates for framework of your choice (NuxtJs, NextJs, ReactJs, etc.) in the {app_root}/web directory, which will be preinstalled with all the Nhost libraries and plugins required to allow you to immediately start developing your frontend app.

Usage

Just one command:

nhost

• On first run in an empty directory, since the directory is not initialized for an Nhost app, it will do so, and launch the development environment.
• From second run onward, it will start app.

You can also execute the aforementioned actions using their specific commands:

1. nhost init - to intialize a blank local app in current working directory. Or nhost init --remote to clone an existing app from Nhost console.
2. nhost dev - to start your app.

Blank Local app

If you do not have an already existing app on Nhost console, and you wish to create a new app on Nhost console and link it automatically to the local environment, then use:

nhost link

Note: ability to create new apps on Nhost console directly from your local environment is only available in CLI v0.5.0 or above.

If you have CLI version less than v0.5.0, then you need to have an already existing app on Nhost console.

To upgrade your CLI to latest version, check this out.

Existing Remote App

If you already have a remote app for which you would like to setup a local development environment for, use the following:

nhost init --remote

This will present you with a list of apps, across all the workspaces, available on Nhost console, and you can select any one of those to set up a local environment for.

Environment Variables

• Default file for environment variables is {app_root}/.env.development.
• All variables inside .env.development are accessible inside both containers, and functions.

For more detailed information on runtime variables, including how to add environment variables only to specific service containers, and the list of dynamically generated runtime variables, check this out.

Debugging

If you wish to trace the output and check verbose logs for any command, use the global flag --debug or -d

Example:

nhost dev -d

This will print the debug logs along with the standard information, warnings and errors.

ProTip

You can parallely run nhost logs to check real time logs of any service container of your choice, while your local environment is already running. And you can also save it's output, by using --log-file flag.

Functions

All functions must be stored inside the {app_root}/functions directory.

When you launch the development environment using nhost or nhost dev, it will automatically also start your functions server, and display the URL on your terminal, in the following format:

http://localhost:1337/v1/functions/{function_name}

If you want to call your functions/hello.js function, you can call the following route:

http://localhost:1337/v1/functions/hello

Runtimes

Nhost CLI currently supports functions in following runtimes:

1. NodeJS (Both Javascript and Typescript)
2. Golang

For more detailed information on Serverless Functions, like hello-world templates, understanding how speed up testing of functions, and some Pro-Tips, check this out.

Migration

CLI (>= v0.5.0) produces the nhost/config.yaml file in your app root in a different format than the legacy CLI, and not to mention reads the same during nhost dev command.

Now, if you already have existing Nhost apps initialized in multiple directories, and you upgrade to CLI v0.5.0 globally, the new CLI may not be able to read the nhost/config.yaml files saved in older formats, hence breaking your local development environment.

Dependencies

For versions >= v0.5.0:

• Docker
• Git

For versions less than v0.5.0:

• Hasura CLI
• Docker
• Docker Compose
• curl
• Git

Community

• To report bugs, or request new features, please open an issue.
• For urgent support from our team, connect with us on Discord.