Shipyard
officialThe Shipyard CLI provides an MCP server for agents to manage Shipyard environments directly: by pulling logs, comparing branches, running tests, and stopping/starting environments..
What can you do with Shipyard MCP?
- List environments with filters — Ask to show environments filtered by repo, branch, or pull request via
shipyard get environments. - Inspect environment details — Retrieve full info for a specific environment UUID, including its bypass token for scripting.
- Manage environment lifecycle — Stop, restart, cancel builds, rebuild, or revive deleted environments by UUID.
- Access services and logs — Get exposed ports, stream logs, exec commands, or port-forward into a running environment's service.
- Handle volumes and snapshots — List, reset, snapshot, load, or upload files to volumes within an environment.
- Deploy detached environments — Clone an application build with custom branch overrides and rebuild policies.
Documentation
The Shipyard CLI
A tool to manage Ephemeral Environments on the Shipyard platform.
Using an AI assistant? The CLI includes an MCP server: see Use Shipyard from an AI assistant.
Installation
-
Linux and macOS
curl https://www.shipyard.sh/install.sh | bash -
Windows Navigate to the releases page and download the executable for Windows.
-
Homebrew
brew tap shipyard/tap brew install shipyard
Login
Run shipyard login to initialize the CLI. This will prompt you to log in to Shipyard in the browser. The CLI will then
save your API token in a local config. You're ready to start running commands.
Or Set Your Token Manually
Set your Shipyard API token as the value of the SHIPYARD_API_TOKEN environment variable.
You can get it by going to your profile page.
You can get in touch with us at support@shipyard.build if you would like to enable API access for your org. If you have any other questions, feel free to join our community Slack.
shipyard set token
Alternatively, you can use a configuration file stored in $HOME/.shipyard/config.yaml by default.
When you run the CLI for the first time, it will create a default empty config that you can then edit.
You can also specify a non-default config path with the --config {path} flag added to any command.
Add any configuration values in your config and ensure the file follows YAML syntax. For example:
api_token: <your-token>
org: <your-non-default-org>
The values of your environment variables override their corresponding values in the config.
Basic usage
Get all orgs you are a member of
shipyard get orgs
Set the global default org
shipyard set org {org-name}
Get the currently configured org
shipyard get org
List all environments
shipyard get environments
Available flags:
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| branch | Filter by branch name | string | |
| deleted | Return deleted environments | boolean | false |
| json | Print the complete JSON output | boolean | false |
| name | Filter by name of the application | string | |
| org-name | Filter by org name, if you are part of multiple orgs | string | your default org |
| page | Page number requested | int | 1 |
| page-size | Page size requested | int | 20 |
| pull-request-number | Filter by pull request number | string | |
| repo-name | Filter by repo name | string |
Examples:
- List all environments running the repo
flask-backendon branchmain:
shipyard get environments --repo-name flask-backend --branch main
- List all deleted environments:
shipyard get environments --deleted
Get details for a specifc environment by its UUID
shipyard get environment {environment_uuid}
Available flags:
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| json | Print the complete JSON output | boolean | false |
| org | Org of the environment, if you are part of multiple orgs | string | your default org |
| bypass-token | Print only the environment's bypass token, for scripts | boolean | false |
--bypass-token lets a script use the token without anyone typing or printing it:
SHIPYARD_TOKEN=$(shipyard get environment {environment_uuid} --bypass-token) && \
export SHIPYARD_TOKEN && curl -b "shipyard_token=$SHIPYARD_TOKEN" https://your-environment-url/
Stop a running environment
shipyard stop environment {environment_uuid}
Restart a stopped environment
shipyard restart environment {environment_uuid}
Cancel ongoing build for an environment
shipyard cancel environment {environment_uuid}
Rebuild an environment
shipyard rebuild environment {environment_uuid}
Revive a deleted environment
shipyard revive environment {environment_uuid}
Deploy a detached environment
Create a new, independent ("detached") environment by cloning an existing application build. Requires detached environments to be enabled for your org.
shipyard detached deploy {application_build_uuid} --name my-detached-env
Override branches per-repo and control whether the detached environment rebuilds on new commits:
# Override the branch for a repo, and never rebuild on new commits
shipyard detached deploy {application_build_uuid} --name my-detached-env --branch web=feature-x --build-on-commit never
# Per-repo build-on-commit settings (always | inherit | never)
shipyard detached deploy {application_build_uuid} --build-on-commit-for web=always --build-on-commit-for api=never
Get all services and exposed ports for an environment
shipyard get services --env {environment_uuid}
Exec into a running environment's service
Execute any command with any arguments and flags in a given service for a running environment. Pass any command arguments after a double slash.
shipyard exec --env {environment_uuid} --service {service_name} -- bash
Port forward a running environment's service's port
shipyard port-forward --env {environment_uuid} --service {service_name} --ports {local_port}:{service_container_port}
Get logs for a running environment's service
shipyard logs --env {environment_uuid} --service {service_name}
Visit an environment
shipyard visit {environment_uuid}
Available flags:
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| follow | Follow the logs output | boolean | false |
| tail | # of recent log lines to show | int | 3000 |
Work with volumes
List all volumes in an environment
shipyard get volumes --env {environment_uuid}
List all volume snapshots in an environment
shipyard get snapshots --env {environment_uuid}
Reset a volume in an environment
shipyard reset volume --env {environment_uuid}
Create a snapshot in an environment
shipyard create snapshot --env {environment_uuid}
Load a volume snapshot in an environment
shipyard load snapshot --env {environment_uuid} --sequence-number {n}
Upload a file to a volume in an environment
shipyard upload volume --env {environment_uuid} --volume {volume} --file {filepath.bz2}
Call the REST API directly
shipyard api /api/v1/environment
shipyard api -X PUT /api/v1/environment/{environment_uuid}/env-vars --input body.json
Paths must start with /api/v1 or /api/v2; your token and org are added for you.
bypass_token and kubeconfig credentials are redacted unless you pass --include-secrets.
Connect to telepresence
shipyard telepresence connect --env {environment_uuid}
From there, you'll be able to communicate directly with all pods in the namespace. You may have to use the
namespace hostname to communicate with services, which you can get via telepresence status under the Namespace field. For example, to communicate with redis, you'd use redis.shipyard-app-build-{uuid}
Build executable from code:
You can make an executable by running the following command:
make
To run this new executable:
./shipyard
Enable Autocompletion
Bash
This script depends on the bash-completion package. If it is not installed already, you can install it via your OS's
package manager.
To load completions in your current shell session:
source <(shipyard completion bash)
To load completions for every new session, execute the following once.
On Linux:
shipyard completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/shipyard
On macOS:
shipyard completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/shipyard
Zsh
If shell completion is not already enabled in your environment, you will need to enable it. You can execute the following once:
echo "autoload -U compinit; compinit" >> ~/.zshrc
To load completions in your current shell session:
source <(shipyard completion zsh); compdef _shipyard shipyard
To load completions for every new session, execute the following once.
On Linux:
shipyard completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_shipyard"
On macOS:
shipyard completion zsh > $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh/site-functions/_shipyard
You will need to start a new shell for this setup to take effect.
Fish
To load completions in your current shell session:
$ shipyard completion fish | source
To load completions for each session, execute once:
shipyard completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/shipyard.fish
PowerShell
To load completions in your current shell session:
shipyard completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression
To load completions for every new session, run:
shipyard completion powershell > shipyard.ps1
and source this file from your PowerShell profile.
Use Shipyard from an AI assistant (MCP)
shipyard mcp serve runs a Model Context Protocol server, so an
assistant such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or Codex can list, inspect, rebuild and configure your
environments, read service logs, manage volumes, and verify a pushed change against its environment.
With the CLI logged in, add it to Claude Code:
claude mcp add shipyard -- shipyard mcp serve
Then ask things like:
- "Which environments are running for the
webrepo?" - "Show me the
apiservice's logs on my branch's environment." - "Set
FEATURE_FLAGS=betaon this environment and restart theworkerservice." - "I just pushed. Verify the change against its environment." (or
/mcp__shipyard__verify)
See the MCP guide for setting it up in other clients, configuration, the full tool list,
the verify prompt, and troubleshooting.