CLI Quickstart

CLI Quickstart

Get authenticated and manage your first resource from the terminal.

This quickstart uses CLI v1.0.1. Install or upgrade with the installation guide.

Step 1: Authenticate

zcp profile add

You’ll be prompted for:

• Profile name (e.g., default)
• Bearer token: get this from the portal under Profile → API Tokens
• API URL: https://api.zcp.zsoftly.ca/api
• Default region (e.g., yow-1) and default project (e.g., default-9)

The default region and project are saved to the profile and used by every region/project-scoped command, so you don’t have to pass --region/--project each time (like aws configure).

Verify authentication:

zcp auth validate

Note

Almost every command requires a region and project. The profile defaults above satisfy that requirement. You can still override per command with --region/--project or ZCP_REGION/ZCP_PROJECT. Only account-level commands (dns, auth, profile, region, project, cloud-provider, currency, billing-cycle, server, billing/support/dashboard) are exempt.

Step 2: Explore

# List available regions
zcp region list

# List available plans
zcp plan vm
zcp plan storage
zcp plan network
zcp storage-category list

# List your projects
zcp project list

Step 3: Create a VM

# List available templates (OS images)
zcp template list --region yow-1

# Create an instance
zcp instance create \
  --name my-server \
  --template "<template-slug>" \
  --plan "<compute-plan-slug>" \
  --blockstorage-plan "<root-storage-plan-slug>" \
  --root-disk-size 100 \
  --network-plan "<network-plan-slug>" \
  --storage-category "<storage-category-slug>" \
  --billing-cycle hourly

Note

Plans are compute-only. CLI v1.0.0 and later require --blockstorage-plan for the named root storage tier and --root-disk-size in GB. List values in your selected region with zcp plan vm, zcp plan storage, zcp plan network, and zcp storage-category list.

Replace each quoted placeholder with a slug from your account. Set --root-disk-size to a positive number that meets or exceeds the template’s minimum disk size. --network-plan creates an isolated network. Use a plan slug from zcp plan network.

Step 4: Manage it

# List your instances
zcp instance list

# Get instance details
zcp instance get my-server

# Power off
zcp instance stop my-server

# Reboot
zcp instance reboot my-server

# Delete
zcp instance delete my-server

Output formats

# JSON output (great for scripting)
zcp instance list --output json

# YAML output
zcp instance list --output yaml

# Pipe to jq
zcp instance list -o json | jq '.[].name'

CI/CD usage

# Use environment variables with no config file
export ZCP_BEARER_TOKEN="your-token"
export ZCP_API_URL="https://api.zcp.zsoftly.ca/api"
export ZCP_PROJECT="default"

zcp instance list -o json

See also: Configuration, CLI Reference