Get fly with your Fly command line

Summary

Fly’s command-line tool, available as both flyctl and fly on most platforms, includes shortcuts and options that reduce directory changes and browser navigation. App selection can use -a appname instead of relying on the current directory’s fly.toml; fly deploy can also build from a specified child directory, such as ./mygreatchildapp. When a fly.toml is present, the command asks for confirmation that the supplied app name should be used. Multiple deployment variants can be kept in separately named configuration files and selected with -c or --config, including when deploying from a monorepo tree. Browser-oriented commands include fly open for an app’s .fly.dev URL, fly dash metrics for dashboard metrics, and fly docs for the documentation’s top page.

Takeaways

1. 1

   On most platforms, flyctl and fly are interchangeable, and -a appname can select an app without changing directories; an existing fly.toml prompts for confirmation.

2. 2

   fly deploy ./mygreatchildapp finds the fly.toml in that child directory, while -c or --config selects a named configuration such as preview.toml.

3. 3

   fly open resolves and opens the app’s .fly.dev URL; fly dash metrics opens dashboard metrics, and fly docs opens the documentation’s top page.