Drift CLI

drift is the command-line client for Drift — a simple, European serverless cloud. Everything you do on Drift happens through this one tool: create your environment, deploy serverless functions in six languages, host static sites, store data, and ship an entire application with a single command. There is no web dashboard — running drift on its own opens a full-screen terminal dashboard (TUI) over your slices, functions, and data; the browser opens at most once, to configure a slice.

A slice is your isolated environment. It bundles three primitives:

• Atomic — serverless functions in Go, Python, Node.js, Ruby, PHP, and Rust.
• Backbone — your data and state: secrets, a NoSQL store, SQL databases, queues, blobs, a cache, locks, realtime channels, passwordless auth (KeyAuth), and a zero-knowledge vault.
• Canvas — static site hosting, served same-origin with your functions (no CORS).

Install

go install github.com/ondrift/cli/cmd/drift@latest

This installs the drift binary into your $GOBIN. Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/ondrift/cli && cd cli
go build -o drift ./cmd/drift

Getting started

drift account create                   # sign up (email verification)
drift slice create my-app              # create a slice (opens the configurator)
drift slice use my-app                 # make it the active slice
drift atomic new hello -l go -m get    # scaffold a function
drift atomic deploy ./hello            # deploy it
drift project deploy                   # …or deploy a whole app from a Driftfile

Commands

Dashboard

Command	Description
drift	With no arguments in a terminal, launches the full-screen interactive dashboard (a btop/k9s-style TUI) over your slices, functions, and Backbone data. In a pipe or CI (no TTY) it falls back to --help.

Account

Command	Description
drift account create	Sign up — username, email, password, email OTP verification.
drift account login	Authenticate; stores a session token in ~/.drift/session.json.
drift upgrade [version]	Update the CLI via go install — latest by default, or pin a version (e.g. drift upgrade v1.8.1) to roll back. The dashboard nudges you when a newer release exists.

Slices

Command	Description
drift slice create [name]	Create a slice (opens the configurator in your browser; --headless for a free slice).
drift slice list	List your slices; the active one is marked.
drift slice use <name>	Set the active slice for subsequent commands.
drift slice resize [name]	Reconfigure resources for a slice (defaults to the active slice; opens the configurator, or --from <Driftfile> for a headless resize).
drift slice restart	Restart the active slice.
drift slice delete <name>	Delete a slice (double confirmation).
drift slice domain add|verify|remove|list <host>	Attach and verify custom domains.
drift slice link add|list|remove <slice>	Let the active slice call another slice you own, in-cluster (e.g. an app → your own observability slice). Use it from code with drift.Slice("<slice>").
drift slice snapshot create|list|download|restore|delete	Portable backups — your data, with no Drift-specific files.

Atomic — serverless functions

Command	Description
drift atomic new [name]	Add a function to an element — a flat file under atomic/, not a per-function folder. HTTP or queue trigger. Flags: -l/--lang, -m/--method, -q/--queue, -a/--auth, -e/--element.
drift atomic fetch [path]	Resolve dependencies for every function found under a path.
drift atomic run <dir>	Run a function locally with hot reload.
drift atomic deploy <dir>	Build, archive, and deploy a function.
drift atomic list	List deployed functions.
drift atomic logs <name>	View a function's logs (logs purge clears them).
drift atomic metrics <name>	Request count, error rate, average duration.
drift atomic redeploy|rollback|history <name>	Manage deployed versions.
drift atomic trigger|alert|egress|auth <name>	Configure triggers, alerts, outbound egress, and API-key auth.
drift atomic element list	List your elements (single-language backends) and the functions each contains.
drift atomic delete <name>	Remove a function.

Backbone — data

Command	Description
drift backbone secret set|get|delete	Encrypted secrets (the key never reaches your code).
drift backbone nosql write|read|list|drop	NoSQL collections.
drift backbone sql list|drop	Per-slice SQLite databases.
drift backbone queue push|pop|peek|len|drop	Queues.
drift backbone blob put|get|list|delete	Blob storage.
drift backbone cache set|get|del|exists	Ephemeral cache.
drift backbone lock acquire|release|renew	Distributed locks.
drift backbone status	Backbone health and resource usage for the active slice.

Canvas — static sites

Command	Description
drift canvas deploy <dir>	Deploy a static site, served same-origin with your functions.

Projects

Command	Description
drift project deploy [env]	Deploy an entire application from its Driftfile. Functions whose source is unchanged since the last deploy are skipped automatically; pass --force to redeploy everything.
drift project run [env]	Build and run the whole project locally in Docker — no account, no cloud. The "run it locally" half of the two-button story.
drift project stop [env]	Stop the local run.
drift project logs [env]	Tail logs from the local run.
drift project diff	Preview what a deploy would change (never shrinks a slice).

Migrate — leave another cloud

Free, read-only, and honest about the parts that don't fit. Drift never holds your cloud credentials or your data — every command runs locally with your own provider login. The first provider is Azure.

Command	Description
drift migrate azure estimate -g <rg>	Read-only: map an Azure resource group's cost to the equivalent Drift slice.
drift migrate azure snapshot -g <rg> -o <dir>	Read-only: pull function source (Python/Node, incl. Linux Consumption), Cosmos Mongo documents, blobs, queue messages (peeked, never dequeued), $web static sites, and app settings into a vendor-neutral folder you own.
drift migrate azure transform -i <dir> -o <dir>	Offline, deterministic: rewrite the export into a deployable Drift project (validated Driftfile + scaffolds).
drift migrate azure apply -i <dir>	Deploy the workspace (-i/--in, default ./drift_workspace); hard-refuses around anything in REFUSED.md unless --accept-refusals.

Anything that can't move is written to REFUSED.md with a reason; review it and REPORT.md before deploying. Cosmos export needs mongoexport; Linux Consumption source needs squashfs-tools — the tool prints the exact install if either is missing.

Configuration

Variable	Purpose
NO_COLOR	Disable coloured output.

Session tokens live in ~/.drift/session.json.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.