Photon CLI

Typed terminal UI for the Photon Dashboard. Replaces the web UI for everyday work — manage projects, Spectrum users / lines / platforms, billing, and your developer profile from a terminal.

npx @photon-ai/cli login        # try it without installing
bun add -g @photon-ai/cli       # or install for daily use

Install

Four options. Pick whichever fits.

1. Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

brew install photon-hq/photon/photon
photon login

Auto-updates with brew upgrade photon. No runtime dependencies — the formula installs a self-contained binary.

2. One-off — no install (npx / bunx)

npx  @photon-ai/cli login
bunx @photon-ai/cli projects ls

Each invocation pulls the latest release on demand. Good for scripts, throwaway machines, or trying the CLI before committing. Requires Bun on PATH (the bundle has a #!/usr/bin/env bun shebang) — install it once with:

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

3. Global install — daily use (bun add -g)

bun add -g @photon-ai/cli
photon login

After install, photon is on your PATH. The pho alias (see below) is created automatically the first time you run photon.

4. Standalone binary — no Bun, no Node

For CI environments or systems where you don't want any runtime:

# pick your platform from https://github.com/photon-hq/cli/releases/latest
curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/photon \
  https://github.com/photon-hq/cli/releases/latest/download/photon-darwin-arm64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/photon
photon --version

Available for macOS (arm64 / x64) and Linux (x64 / arm64). Each binary ships with a corresponding .sha256 checksum on the same release page.

Quickstart

# 1. Log in (opens a browser to approve the device)
photon login

# 2. Pick a project for this shell session
photon projects ls
export PHOTON_PROJECT_ID=<project-id>

# 3. Off you go
photon projects show
photon spectrum users ls
photon billing show

The pho alias

pho is a shortcut for photon, useful for high-frequency commands. It's created automatically as a sibling symlink the first time you run photon after installing — so no setup needed for global installs:

pho ls          # photon projects ls
pho whoami

(npx / bunx users don't get pho since they're already typing the full package name; the alias is only created when running through an installed photon binary.)

Concepts

Backend host

Every command talks to a backend URL. The default — and the only URL baked into the public bundle — is production (https://app.photon.codes). To target any other backend (your own deployment, a staging environment, a local dev server), set PHOTON_API_HOST:

export PHOTON_API_HOST=https://your.backend.tld
photon login
photon projects ls

# Or one-off, per command:
photon projects ls --api-host https://your.backend.tld

# Or inline:
PHOTON_API_HOST=https://your.backend.tld photon projects ls

Resolution order: --api-host <url> flag → PHOTON_API_HOST env var → built-in production.

photon env current prints the resolved host:

$ photon env current
production (https://app.photon.codes)
$ PHOTON_API_HOST=http://localhost:3000 photon env current
localhost_3000 (http://localhost:3000)

Credentials are stored per host ($PHOTON_CONFIG_DIR/credentials/<key>.json by default — see config dir below — mode 600), so you can be logged into multiple backends simultaneously. The <key> is derived from the URL — production keeps the literal name production for back-compat; other hosts get a sanitized hostname where ., :, and % are replaced with _ (e.g. staging-app_photon_codes, localhost_3000). The _ substitution avoids collisions between distinct hosts like a-b.com and a.b-com.

Setting an active project

Most commands operate on a single project. Two ways to specify it:

# Per command — explicit, scoped to one invocation
photon spectrum users ls --project abc123

# Per shell — set once, applies to every photon invocation in this shell
export PHOTON_PROJECT_ID='abc123'
photon spectrum users ls
photon projects show

Resolution order: --project <id> flag → $PHOTON_PROJECT_ID → friendly error.

Put export PHOTON_PROJECT_ID='…' in your shell rc, or use direnv to scope it to a directory. Agents and scripts should pass --project <id> explicitly per call (or set the env var on the spawn).

Multi-backend note. $PHOTON_PROJECT_ID is shell-global and single-valued. If you switch PHOTON_API_HOST between backends in the same shell, prefer --project <id> for the off-default calls, or use a separate shell per backend.

CI / scripting

Authenticate once locally, copy the token from your credentials file (under $PHOTON_CONFIG_DIR/credentials/<key>.json), and use it in CI:

photon projects ls --token "$PHOTON_TOKEN"
# or
PHOTON_TOKEN=… photon projects ls

Pair with --json for machine-readable output:

photon projects ls --json | jq '.[] | .id'
photon billing show --json

PHOTON_TOKEN reuses the same access token issued by the device flow (default 7d expiry — re-run photon login when it expires). A long-lived API-key path is on the roadmap.

Command reference

photon
├── ping                                                hit /api/health
├── env current                                         print resolved API host
├── login [--api-host] [--no-browser]                   device-auth login
├── logout [--api-host]                                 clear creds
├── whoami [--api-host]                                 who am I on this backend
├── auth status                                         login state across backends
├── config show                                         dump active config
├── projects
│   ├── ls                                              list projects
│   ├── show [id]                                       project detail
│   ├── create [--name <n> --location <loc> --spectrum] new project
│   ├── update [id] [...]                               rename / toggle flags
│   ├── delete [id] [-y]                                permanent delete
│   ├── regenerate-secret [id] [-y]                     rotate Spectrum secret
│   ├── open [id]                                       open dashboard in browser
│   └── check-phone <number>                            availability check
├── profile show / init / update                        developer / org profile
├── spectrum
│   ├── users ls / add / remove
│   ├── lines ls / add / remove
│   ├── platforms ls / enable / disable
│   ├── profile show / update
│   └── avatar upload <file>
└── billing
    ├── plans                                           available plans
    ├── show                                            current subscription
    ├── checkout --plan <price-id>                      Stripe Checkout (browser)
    └── manage                                          Stripe Customer Portal

Run photon <cmd> --help for the full flag list of any command.

Flags

Only --debug is truly program-level (works in any position). Every other flag is per-command and must come after the subcommand:

photon --debug projects ls --api-host https://x.tld --json    # ✓ --debug global, others per-cmd
photon --api-host https://x.tld projects ls                   # ✗ won't work (--api-host is per-cmd)

| Flag | Env var | Scope | Effect | |---|---|---|---| | --debug | PHOTON_DEBUG=1 | program | verbose HTTP logs to stderr | | --api-host <url> | PHOTON_API_HOST | per-cmd | override the backend URL | | -p, --project <id> | PHOTON_PROJECT_ID | per-cmd | project id for this command; defaults to $PHOTON_PROJECT_ID | | -t, --token <token> | PHOTON_TOKEN | per-cmd | bypass stored creds (CI) | | --json | — | per-cmd | structured output (opt-in) | | --yes, -y | — | per-cmd | skip destructive-action confirmation | | --no-browser | — | per-cmd | don't auto-open browser (login, billing, projects open) | | --no-color | NO_COLOR=1, PHOTON_NO_COLOR=1 | program (env-driven) | disable colors (NO_COLOR standard) |

config dir

The CLI's config root is resolved in this order:

1. $PHOTON_CONFIG_DIR (explicit override)
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/photon (XDG standard)
3. ~/.config/photon/ (default)

If a legacy ~/.config/photon-dashboard/ directory exists from a prior pre-rename install, it migrates automatically to the new path on first run.

Other env vars: PHOTON_TYPES_SRC (maintainer-only, for bun run sync:api), PHOTON_NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1 (mute update prompt).

Development

git clone https://github.com/photon-hq/cli
cd cli
bun install

# Run from source
bun run src/index.ts --help

# Watch
bun run dev

# Typecheck
bun run typecheck

# Build (produces dist/photon.js)
bun run build

# Sync API types from a sibling `dashboard` checkout (maintainer)
bun run sync:api

The CLI's API contract comes from the @photon-ai/api-public type bundle, vendored at types/api.d.ts. To refresh after the dashboard's API surface changes, run bun run sync:api (looks for the sibling checkout by default; set PHOTON_TYPES_SRC to override).

See docs/cli-design.md and docs/cli-build-plan.md for the full architecture notes.

Releases

Tagged via PR labels. Add the release label to any PR; on merge to main, the Release workflow (a thin caller of photon-hq/buildspace's typescript-service-release) generates a version + notes, bumps package.json, creates a GitHub Release, and publishes to npm. Standalone binaries are uploaded by release-binaries.yaml on each release.