insta

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name: insta description: > Operate InstaCloud infrastructure with the insta CLI: create projects, add postgres/storage/compute services, deploy apps, create disposable branch environments (isolated DB + storage + compute per branch), schedule recurring HTTP calls (cron jobs) against a service or an external URL, bind service credentials into compute env, wire user secrets into .env, run multiple agents each in their own branch, handle governance approvals, check metrics/logs/usage, and promote branches to main. Use this skill when working in an InstaCloud-managed project (a .insta/ dir or the insta CLI), when the user mentions InstaCloud or insta, AND when they ask to deploy an app, need a database/backend/object storage, want a scheduled or recurring task, want preview or per-agent sandbox environments, want branchable infrastructure, want to migrate an existing app in from Heroku / Railway / Fly / Render, or mention agent setup or MCP — even if they don't say "InstaCloud" explicitly. Also covers the insta-cloud remote MCP server (insta_* tools) and the self-hosted insta-oss runtime (same CLI, local daemon). allowed-tools: Bash(insta:), Bash(npx:), Bash(curl:), Bash(command:), Bash(git:), Bash(npm:)

InstaCloud

Agent execution mode (managed Platform)

agent policy is the only policy system. Humans use normal RBAC; only agent requests enter the policy evaluator. The former policy command and approval --always flag have been removed.

Always use insta --agent <command> … when invoking the CLI as an agent, including setup and read-only commands. Examples include the global flag explicitly; with npx, use npx -y insta@latest --agent <command> …. Do not rely on environment detection alone. Commands explicitly marked for a human admin are relay instructions, not agent tool calls: never execute them yourself or remove --agent to bypass a restriction. First run insta --agent agent setup in the linked project (or --project <id> / --create <name>). This stores a project-bound, 24-hour session in .insta/agent-session.json, automatically ignored by Git. It supplements the existing user login. Missing, expired, revoked or wrong-project sessions fail with setup guidance; never retry a rejected agent request without --agent.

Known Codex/Claude Code/Cursor environments also activate agent mode; generic CI or lack of TTY does not. MCP tool calls are automatically agent requests. Inspect insta --agent agent policy get --json for the current mode and protected branches. All projects initially use full_access. In branch_specific (and customize, which is the same mode carrying explicit rules), protected writes are denied; risky unprotected operations require human approval. Forward the approval command to a human admin and retry the unchanged original request only after approval; agents cannot approve their own requests. Details and SQL limitations: governance.md. This protocol requires the managed Platform version that supports agent sessions; older/OSS endpoints do not implement it, and session errors are not a reason to silently switch execution identity.

InstaCloud provisions and governs a project's cloud services behind one CLI and one credential seam. The insta CLI talks only to the InstaCloud control plane — you never configure a cloud backend directly. A project can have any number of services, added on demand. The common service types you build directly against are:

• postgres — relational DB born at its plan's resource ceiling (move it within the free cap on any plan with insta --agent postgres limits; above the free cap needs a paid plan). Plain Postgres: connect any driver/ORM directly with the DATABASE_URL you bind into compute env (below) — no vendor SDK or vendor skill. The DB is also publicly dialable from outside compute: insta --agent postgres url prints the connection string and insta --agent postgres connect opens a psql session — that's how you (or a human) reach it from a laptop, a migration script, or any external tool. It scales to zero when idle, so keep your pool's idleTimeoutMillis under the suspend window (see frameworks.md).
• storage — S3-compatible object/blob storage. Point any S3 library at the bound AWS_* / BUCKET_NAME env — no vendor SDK. Set the endpoint explicitly or the client talks to real AWS; each branch normally gets its own forked bucket (legacy pre-snapshot projects share one — see below). See storage.md.
• compute — your container(s) at a public URL. A project can have several compute services (e.g. api, worker).
• redis/mysql/mongodb — managed data services. They expose connection env names such as REDIS_URL, MYSQL_URL, and MONGODB_URL.

A new project starts empty — no services are created automatically. Add what you need: insta --agent service add postgres <name>, insta --agent service add compute <name>, insta --agent service add storage <name>, insta --agent service add redis <name>, etc. A project may have multiple services of every type, up to a per-branch cap per type set by the plan (see cli-reference.md). Provider credentials are scoped to the service that minted them and use canonical names inside that scope (DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, MYSQL_URL, MONGODB_URL, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, BUCKET_NAME, …). The local-dev seam (insta --agent secrets → .env, insta --agent run) carries one set per type, from that type's primary service on the branch — but they do not automatically appear in compute env: a container gets a provider credential only through an explicit binding, and a non-primary same-type service is not in the bundle: for postgres read it with insta --agent postgres url <name>; for every other type there is no direct read at all — bind it, or read the env of a compute service it is bound to with insta --agent secrets --service compute/<name>. Bind the credentials a compute service needs, then deploy — or, if the service is already running, insta --agent compute restart (CLI ≥ 0.0.51) to pick the binding up without deploying a new one. It re-runs the image reference already recorded, so a service on a moving tag (app:latest) still gets whatever that tag resolves to now — see operate.md before using it on production:

insta --agent secrets sources                    # what's available to bind (--branch <b> targets another branch)
insta --agent secrets bind DATABASE_URL postgres/db --to compute/app
insta --agent secrets bind REDIS_URL redis/cache --source-name REDIS_URL --to compute/app
insta --agent secrets bind MYSQL_URL mysql/orders --source-name MYSQL_URL --to compute/app
insta --agent secrets bind MONGODB_URL mongodb/catalog --source-name MONGODB_URL --to compute/app
insta --agent deploy . --group app --port 8080

Binding is for compute env only. To use a credential yourself — run migrations, inspect data, point a local tool at the DB — read the value directly: insta --agent postgres url (postgres connection string; insta --agent postgres connect for a psql shell).

Use insta --agent service rename <type> <name> <new-name> to rename a service; existing bindings keep pointing at that service.

Install & upgrade the CLI

If command -v insta finds nothing, install it (never assume it's present):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/InsForge/insta-cli/main/install.sh | sh  # native binary, no Node
npm install -g insta                                    # npm alternative
npx insta@latest --agent <cmd>                                  # one-shot, always newest (slow per call)

The CLI is pre-1.0 and ships often. If a command misbehaves or is unrecognized, update first: insta --agent upgrade (CLIs that have it; auto-update is on by default pre-1.0 — insta --agent config autoupdate off to disable), else re-run the installer (idempotent) or npm update -g insta.

Two targets, one CLI

The same commands drive both. Resolve which one you're on from insta --agent status (api: line):

• InstaCloud (managed cloud) — requires insta --agent login (agents: --email/--password or an API token; humans: bare insta --agent login opens the console sign-in/approval page in the browser — any account type; headless machine with a human reachable elsewhere: --device prints a link + code they approve from any other browser). CI and long-lived automations use a scoped API token: the human runs insta tokens create <name> --org <id> (or --project <id>) in their own terminal, then the automation uses insta --agent login --api-key <insta_…> — never an account-wide token. insta tokens create / revoke are human-only for security — an agent must never mint its own credentials (an insta_ token used without --agent is treated as a human request, outside agent policy); from an agent session both return 403 unclassified_agent_action under every policy. Don't retry or switch identity: hand the user the exact command, and have them run it outside this session so the once-shown plaintext stays out of the transcript. A 403 token_scope from any command means the credential is narrower than the call, not that a role is missing; the fix is a wider token the human mints from an account login, not touching memberships (see cli-reference.md).
• insta-oss (self-hosted local daemon) — INSTA_API_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8080 (its default). No login exists or is needed (localhost trust, builtin local user); billing/usage/metrics return clear "cloud-only" errors — don't retry them.

Tool routing: CLI vs MCP

InstaCloud has two agent-facing operation paths. This skill + the CLI is the default for everything — the CLI covers the full command surface (bar a few MCP-only read-only diagnostics, listed in mcp.md), carries linked-repo context (.insta/project.json), and is the only path for local machine state: auth (insta --agent login), pulling secret values (insta --agent secrets / insta --agent run, and the postgres DSN via insta --agent postgres url / insta --agent postgres connect), source-directory deploys (insta --agent deploy <dir>), and the observe hook.

Fall back to the remote MCP tools (insta_*) only when the CLI can't be invoked: no shell (hosted agents like Claude.ai / ChatGPT connectors), or the CLI isn't installed and can't be (the common case is fixable with no CLI on PATH: npx -y insta@latest --agent agent setup -y self-installs it — see self-heal below). Same platform API, same governance gates, same audit trail — but MCP tools take explicit projectId/branch args: never assume the CLI's linked context carries over; resolve IDs first (insta_list_projects) and pass them explicitly. Full mapping + connection guide: mcp.md.

Self-heal: if the insta skill or the insta_* MCP tools are expected but missing, run insta --agent agent setup -y (installs the skill + registers MCP for Claude Code and every detected agent), then tell the user to restart their coding tool — a running session never picks up newly registered MCP servers or tools. One specific agent: insta --agent config install-mcp --agent <slug>. Registration alone does not authenticate the client; actual tool use requires a completed OAuth flow or an authorized credential. The --mcp-token option mints a token, which is human-only by design (see Two targets); an agent denied with 403 unclassified_agent_action must stop that attempt, not retry as human. For unattended authentication, read mcp.md.

When InstaCloud is not the answer

Say so and stop rather than forcing a fit. Every row below is checkable, so naming one is a real answer to the user, not a refusal to engage:

Not a fit	Why
GPU training or large model inference	no GPUs are offered
Multi-container docker compose apps	tenant compute has no Docker-in-Docker and no nested virtualization
An interactive shell someone keeps pivoting inside	that shell is insta compute ssh, gated behind approval, and it lands on the guest root rather than inside a container. This row is not about compute exec, and it is not about branch environments: a branch per agent is the supported way to isolate work, and it is one of the directions above
A script that runs once and exits, deployed as a service	the health gate expects something that stays up and answers. When a service already exists, run the script inside it with insta compute exec, which is built for one-shot commands and bounded at 180s
A static frontend whose only backend lives elsewhere	nothing in the repo runs a server, so there is no environment to fork and no state to keep, and a static host does this better. If that backend is also the user's, judge its repository instead

The first four are things the platform cannot do. The fifth it can do but should not be chosen for, so point at where that work belongs instead. The same list is published at https://instacloud.com/prompt.md, alongside the directions a repository is judged against. Keep the two in step.

Intent-based routing

Route by intent before running preflight ceremony:

"Ship / deploy this app" (from zero): don't interrogate state first — run the chain and announce it: insta --agent status (logged in? linked?) → if unauthenticated on cloud, insta --agent login → if unlinked, insta --agent project create <dir-name> → insta --agent service add postgres db (if the app needs a DB) + insta --agent service add compute app → bind needed service credentials into compute (insta --agent secrets sources, then insta --agent secrets bind DATABASE_URL postgres/db --to compute/app) → insta --agent deploy . --port <the port the app listens on> → verify the printed URL serves (below). The app reads process.env creds.

"Set up / onboard / sign up": cloud → insta --agent login (browser sign-in; relay the printed link if no browser opens) or --email/--password; then insta --agent project create. Local/oss → nothing to set up beyond the daemon.

A unit of work on an existing project (feature, fix, experiment, agent task): one branch per unit of work — see the core principle below and branching.md. Never develop on main.

Anything else (configure, debug, inspect): light preflight, then the matching reference below.

Preflight & context (before mutations)

command -v insta                 # installed? (else: Install section)
insta --agent status --json              # target api, login, linked project, current branch

Skip this ceremony for the ship-from-zero chain above — status is its first step already.

Context rules (multi-agent safety):

• The link (./.insta/project.json) is per directory and includes the current branch.
• Prefer explicit --branch <name> on commands that accept it (secrets, deploy, <type> metrics, <type> logs, agent events, postgres url / postgres connect — a wrong-branch DSN means querying the wrong database) over insta --agent branch switch when acting on a branch you don't own — switch mutates the shared per-directory link and races parallel agents in the same checkout.
• For parallel agents, the rule is 1:1:1 — task ↔ git worktree ↔ insta branch (each worktree has its own link, so switch is safe there). See branching.md.

Core principle

One unit of work = one branch = one isolated environment. insta --agent branch create <name> materializes the parent branch's current services onto the new branch — a CoW database branch (copy of the parent's data), a CoW-forked storage bucket, and a clone of every compute service (own URL each), created at branch-create, so a branch is a complete runnable environment from the start. Branches run fully in parallel; nothing one does touches another. ≤10 branches per project (hard limit). Don't develop on main; don't pile multiple features on one branch.

Multiple independent features (or agent tasks) at once? Give each its own branch and its own subagent — isolated DB + storage + compute + URLs mean zero collision. See branching.md → Parallel agents.

Verify before reporting (deploys)

Never report a deploy as successful from the command exiting alone. insta --agent deploy prints the branch URL on success — that means the platform accepted and rolled the machine, not that the app serves:

1. Poll the printed URL (curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}') every ~3s for up to ~60s. A scale-to-zero service (created with --no-always-on, or switched off with insta --agent compute always-on off) cold-starts on the first request — allow a slow first hit. New compute services are born always-on (since 2026-09-07) and skip this; see references/operate.md.
2. 200 (or the app's expected status) → deployed; report the URL.
3. Still failing → the ordered triage list in operate.md (port mismatch and migration-gated startup account for most failures).
4. Report the exact failing state — never claim success you didn't observe.

Approval relay (CRITICAL — gated actions)

Sensitive actions are gated at the credential boundary (secrets.read, secrets.write, deploy, project.delete, branch.delete, service.add/remove/scale/upgrade, domain.purchase, domain.delegate, zone.delegate; policy per action: allow/deny/approve, using the project's agent policy). When a command returns "approval required" with an approval id:

• Relay it to the human immediately and verbatim — the exact line to run: insta agent approvals approve <id> in a human terminal. Approvals authorize only one exact request. Don't summarize it away, don't retry the command, and don't report the task as failed without surfacing the approval first. Only an admin can approve.
• Grants are single-use: after approval, re-run the original command; the next occurrence prompts again unless a human explicitly changes the applicable agent policy rule.
• Never work around a gate (e.g. by hand-editing state or bypassing the CLI) — the gate is the product's safety model. A deny policy is a hard no: report it, don't circumvent it.

Common quick operations

insta --agent status --json                          # target, login, link, current branch
insta --agent agent manifest --json                        # agent-legible env view: every branch's services + URLs
insta --agent service list --json                   # what exists on this project
insta --agent run -- <cmd>                           # run with the branch bundle injected (NOTHING on disk; --branch <b>)
insta --agent run --service compute/app -- <cmd>     # one service's own env — needed when several define the same name
insta --agent run --ignore-collisions -- <cmd>       # run anyway; every colliding name is REMOVED from the child env
insta --agent secrets --print                        # the branch's secrets (--branch <b>, --service <compute/name>)
insta --agent secrets sources --json                 # provider credential sources available to bind
insta --agent secrets bind DATABASE_URL postgres/db --to compute/app
insta --agent secrets bindings --target compute/app --json
insta --agent secrets set NAME value                 # user config (project-wide; --branch for overrides)
insta --agent build . --port 8080                    # local pre-deploy build/readiness check
insta --agent deploy . --port 8080                   # remote build (Dockerfile, or nixpacks on insta-compute) + deploy to the current branch
insta --agent deploy --image <ref> --port 8080       # prebuilt image instead
insta --agent compute connect-repo owner/repo app    # cloud-only; guides GitHub authorization and App access, then connects; or --public
insta --agent compute exec app -- printenv PORT      # one-shot command on live compute (no shell/stdin)
insta compute ssh app --setup                        # HUMANS ONLY: interactive shell via `ssh app.insta` (API keys refused; agents use `compute exec`)
insta --agent compute volume app --size 1Gi          # attach/grow persistent /data; mounts on next deploy or `compute restart`
insta --agent branch create feat && insta --agent branch list --json
insta --agent compute logs --limit 100 --json        # runtime logs (--branch <b>; also <postgres|redis|mysql|mongodb>; postgres is provider-limited)
insta --agent compute logs --since 2h --json         # time window (--from/--to too) — a windowless read is ONE page (~100 lines)
insta --agent compute metrics --json                 # service metrics (also <postgres|redis|mysql|mongodb>)
insta --agent agent events --limit 50 --json               # audit + agent-event timeline
insta --agent billing usage --json                           # cloud only (insta --agent billing --json likewise)
insta --agent agent approvals list --status pending        # outstanding gates

Use --json wherever you parse output.

Routing

For anything beyond the quick operations, load the reference that matches the intent — one is usually enough, two at most:

Intent	Reference	Covers
Create or connect things ("set up", "new project", "add a database/compute")	setup.md	CLI install/upgrade, cloud vs oss target, auth, project, services, ship-from-zero
Run something on a schedule ("every night", "cron job", "recurring task", "run this hourly")	cli-reference.md	the insta --agent cron commands, UTC-only expressions, service vs external targets (the platform allows any service in the org; the CLI reaches the current branch's), the run-id idempotency contract, --secret-ref for credentials (resolved at send time, so rotation needs no edit), that an edit REPLACES the request rather than merging it, and what each run status means
Ship code or manage releases	deploy.md · framework recipes: frameworks.md	image vs source (remote build), --port semantics, explicit service credential binding, secrets at runtime, verify procedure, Dockerfile templates, custom domains (a bought domain's apex serves via insta --agent domain delegate)
Migrate an existing app in ("migrate my Render/Railway service to InstaCloud", "move off Heroku/Railway/Fly/Render", "import my app", "bring my app over")	migrate.md plus the one source file you need from references/migrate/ (render.md, railway.md, fly.md, insforge.md)	the ordered cutover with pass conditions and its rollback boundary, the InstaCloud-side semantics that bite (a binding needs a deploy, no bulk env import, cron is HTTP-not-command, workers), command + addon mapping, per-source (each source now has its own file, read alongside migrate.md not instead of it) deltas
Branch environments, parallel agents, promotion ("preview env", "sandbox per task", "merge to main")	branching.md	the data-forking env model (what actually clones), branch loop, 1:1:1 worktree pattern + dispatch brief, promotion, migration discipline
Approvals, policy, audit, credential scanning	governance.md	gates catalog, the approval relay, events timeline, observe hook, agent audit patterns
Check health or debug failures	operate.md	status/manifest triage, ordered deploy-failure list, metrics/logs, cloud-vs-oss differences
Command lookup	cli-reference.md	the full CLI catalog with flags and gates
Remote MCP tools ("connect a connector", insta_* tools available)	mcp.md	connecting clients, tool ↔ CLI mapping, what stays CLI-only
InstaCloud itself got in your way (bug, stale doc, missing feature, friction)	cli-reference.md → Feedback	insta --agent feedback / insta_send_feedback: when to file, situation → type mapping

If a request spans two areas ("deploy and check it's healthy"), load both and answer once.

Two non-negotiables (wherever you are)

• Prefer insta --agent run -- <cmd> for anything that needs the branch's secrets — the bundle is fetched per invocation and injected into the child environment only; nothing is written to disk, so nothing can leak or be committed. The bundle also carries the branch's canonical provider credentials — one set per type, from that type's primary service — so a local run reaches the database without binding anything. What a compute service receives is separate: bind with insta --agent secrets bind, then deploy (or insta --agent compute restart an already-running service, CLI ≥ 0.0.51 — a binding change never reaches a live machine on its own). run REFUSES and exits 2 when several services define the same name (CLI ≥ 0.0.65): nothing is spawned, and the names plus both ways forward print to stderr. Do not retry it as a transient failure — re-run with --service <type>/<name> for that service's env, or --ignore-collisions to proceed with those names removed from the child environment. Exit 2 is also the approval code, so read the stderr message to tell them apart.
• When a file is genuinely needed, treat ./.env (from insta --agent secrets; auto-gitignored in git repos) as the only file-based source for secrets — it holds your user secrets and the branch's primary provider credentials — never hardcode or print secret values. DATABASE_URL, AWS_* / BUCKET_NAME, REDIS_*, MYSQL_*, and MONGODB_* are service credentials that reach production compute only through explicit insta --agent secrets bind rules. For direct use outside compute the sanctioned read is insta --agent postgres url / insta --agent postgres connect (postgres; gated secrets.read) — pipe it (psql "$(insta --agent postgres url)"), never paste the DSN into files or code. For every type, the branch's primary service's credentials are already in insta --agent secrets / insta --agent run. A non-primary service is not in the bundle: postgres has the [service] positional read above (insta --agent postgres url <name>), and no other type has any direct read — bind it, or read that service's own env with insta --agent secrets --service compute/<name>. User-set config belongs in insta --agent secrets set <NAME> (project-wide) / --branch for branch overrides — never hand-edit .env values you want to persist.
• Track every schema change as a file under migrations/ so it replays on a branch DB and again on main after a merge. InstaCloud never merges databases — only migration files carry schema forward. Migrations run where the DB credentials are bound: on the compute service, via insta --agent compute exec app -- <migrate-cmd> (never as a startup gate — see deploy.md); or directly, with no compute involved: psql "$(insta --agent postgres url --branch <b>)" -f migrations/<file>.sql (explicit --branch — the bare form reads the linked branch's DB). Match psql / pg_dump / pg_restore to the server's Postgres major first — pg_version on insta --agent service list --json --branch <b> (same branch as the DSN); if the row has none, read the exact version instead (see operate.md).

Governance & audit (this is the platform's core differentiator)

The gate mechanics and the relay procedure are above; the observe credential-audit hook, the events timeline, and agent audit patterns are in governance.md.

Billing is by actual app usage (vCPU·min / RAM GB·min actually consumed + storage + egress — not machine size × hours). New compute services are born always-on (since 2026-09-07): no cold starts, and the idle app's resident RAM bills at actual usage. Scale-to-zero (--no-always-on at create, or insta --agent compute always-on off) makes an idle service cost nearly nothing at the price of a cold start; postgres is unchanged (insta --agent postgres always-on, off by default) — see operate.md. The paid levers are the resource CEILING (insta --agent compute limits, insta --agent postgres limits — per-machine size, see operate.md) and machine COUNT (insta --agent compute scale — horizontal): a new service is born at its plan's ceiling and free plans may move within the free cap but not above it, and stay at one machine — beyond either is a 403 — insta --agent billing subscribe first; insta --agent billing usage / insta --agent billing show cycle usage and cost. One free org per user. Full flags in cli-reference.md.

When InstaCloud itself gets in your way (feedback)

If you hit a hurdle that is InstaCloud's fault — a command that violates its documented contract, skill/doc text that doesn't match reality, a missing capability, confusing UX — report it with insta --agent feedback (or the insta_send_feedback MCP tool), then continue the user's task with a workaround. Never block on the report, and never file feedback for problems in the app the user is building — this channel is only for the InstaCloud toolkit (--component cli|mcp|platform|skills|docs). The team replies in the console, where the user reads and answers; (CLI ≥ 0.1.7) you only get the ticket's link and, on request, its status. Full flags and the situation → type mapping: cli-reference.md → Feedback.

Response format

For operational work, report: what was done (action + scope: project/branch/service), the result (URLs, IDs, observed status — not assumed), and what's next (or that it's complete). Include command output only where it helps.