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CLI

sky is the command-line client for the Skyward control plane. It can talk to a remote daemon or use an embedded daemon in the current process.

Installation

Install the CLI separately from the SDK:

pip install "skyward[cli]"

To run a local daemon from the CLI, install both extras:

pip install "skyward[cli,server]"

The other optional extras are tui for the terminal UI, notebook for the Jupyter provisioner, storage for S3-compatible storage, and client for remote HTTP access from the SDK. Provider-specific extras are not required.

Daemon resolution

Commands resolve the daemon in this order:

  1. --url;
  2. SKYWARD_URL;
  3. an embedded daemon using --database, or ~/.skyward/skyward.sqlite by default.

When a URL resolves, --database is ignored. sky config shows the effective resolution.

Commands that render rows accept --output table or --output json. The default is table; use JSON for scripts.

sky version

sky version

sky server

sky server manages a local daemon process. The detached process writes its PID to ~/.skyward/server.pid and its output to ~/.skyward/server.log.

sky server start
sky server start --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080
sky server start --foreground
sky server stop
sky server status
sky server status --url http://host:7590

start waits for /v1/health/live. --foreground keeps the daemon attached to the terminal and does not create a PID file. stop only stops a process started by this CLI.

sky compute

Create

create registers the provider account from the current process and submits a compute. It returns without waiting for the compute to become ready.

sky compute create --provider aws
sky compute create --provider aws --accelerator A100 --nodes 4 --region us-east-1
sky compute create --provider runpod --accelerator RTX_4090 --name research

The supported provider kinds are:

aws, container, gcp, hyperstack, jarvislabs, lambda, massed_compute, novita, runpod, salad, scaleway, tensordock, vastai, verda, and vultr.

A kind whose SDK extra is not installed is not registered, so it will not appear. sky providers list --kinds shows what this installation can actually reach.

The available create flags are --provider, --name, --accelerator, --nodes, --region, --cpus, --memory, --url, --database, and --output. The provider account reads credentials from the current process. Credential values are not printed by the CLI.

sky new is an alias for sky compute create:

sky new --provider container --name local

Read and delete

sky compute list
sky compute list --state ready
sky compute get research
sky compute get research --output json
sky compute view research
sky compute delete research

get and view accept a compute id or name. view also prints the node rows. delete is an intent change: the returned state can remain deleting while the daemon reconciles the provider state.

Files and commands

These commands use the daemon's file and execution endpoints:

sky compute ls research /data
sky compute rm research /tmp/output
sky compute upload research ./data.csv /data/data.csv
sky compute download research /data/result.json ./result.json
sky compute exec research --node 0 nvidia-smi
sky compute run research train.py
sky compute run research --all train.py

ls, rm, and upload target every node by default where the command allows it. download reads one node and defaults to rank 0. exec runs a shell command on the selected nodes. run sends a local Python script through the worker path; --all runs it on every node.

sky log

sky log replays a compute's recorded events. Without --follow, it stops after the replay is quiet.

sky log research
sky log research --follow
sky log research --limit 50 --output json
sky log research --idle 3
sky log export research history.jsonl
sky log export research history.md

export accepts .jsonl, .json, .md, and .markdown destinations.

sky offers

Offers are served from the daemon's provider cache. list sorts by the cheapest available price and supports:

sky offers list
sky offers list --accelerator H100 --min-count 4 --min-vram 80 --limit 10
sky offers list --provider runpod --max-price 2.5
sky offers list --refresh --output json

The filters are --provider, --accelerator, --min-count, --min-vram, --max-price, --limit, and --refresh. --provider accepts an account id or name. --accelerator accepts the provider's spelling; returned offers use the shared normalized accelerator vocabulary. --limit 0 prints all rows.

fetch forces a refresh and reports the number of cached rows per provider:

sky offers fetch
sky offers fetch --provider vastai

summary groups cached rows by accelerator and provider:

sky offers summary
sky offers summary --accelerator A100 --refresh

Each provider has its own freshness interval. If a refresh fails, the daemon keeps the provider's stale rows and records the error on the provider account.

sky providers

A provider is a registered account, not only a provider kind. The daemon uses the account credentials; list and check responses do not return them.

sky providers list
sky providers list --kinds
sky providers check
sky providers check production

list shows registered accounts. list --kinds shows supported kinds, required credential fields, and offer-cache TTLs. check reports the last recorded result; it does not perform a new credential probe.

sky config

Skyward has no configuration file. These commands show the resolved daemon URL and embedded database:

sky config path
sky config show
sky config validate

validate checks /v1/health/ready and exits non-zero when the daemon is not reachable or not ready.

Top-level compute aliases

The following commands are shortcuts for common compute operations:

sky status
sky status research
sky sessions
sky stop research

status lists all computes when no reference is supplied and reads one compute otherwise. sessions lists all computes. stop delegates to compute deletion.

Interactive commands

sky console research
sky console research --node 0
sky console research --node 0 --command "nvidia-smi"
sky repl research

console opens a shell on one node. repl opens the Python interpreter bootstrapped on that node.

sky monitor attaches to a running compute and follows it until you interrupt:

sky monitor research
sky monitor research --mode log

--mode rich (the default) draws the live footer; --mode log prints plain lines, which is what you want in CI or when piping to a file. Monitoring creates nothing — the compute has to exist already.

Next steps