Using the Akka CLI

The Akka command-line interface (CLI) complements the browser-based Akka Console user interface (UI), allowing you to perform deployment and configuration operations directly from the command line. This page provides an overview of common commands.

Check regularly to ensure you have the latest version of the akka CLI. You can check the installed version by running:

akka version

For instructions on updating, see installing and updating.

Basic CLI Usage

The general structure of an Akka CLI command is:

akka <command> [sub-command] [parameters] --[flags]

Flags, which modify command behavior, are always preceded by --.

Logging In

Before using the akka CLI, you must authenticate with your Akka account. To initiate the login process, run:

akka auth login

This command opens the Akka console login screen in your default web browser. The CLI will display Waiting for UI login…​ while you authenticate. Once authorization is complete, the CLI returns to the command prompt.

Upon successful authentication:

  • If you have one project, it is automatically set as the current project.

  • If no projects exist, you’ll need to create one and set it manually.

  • If you have multiple projects, you’ll need to specify the target project manually (see below).

To set your current project:

akka config set project my-project

For more authentication options:

akka auth -h

Handling Proxies

In corporate environments with HTTP proxy servers that don’t support HTTP/2, you may encounter issues since the akka CLI uses gRPC. To bypass these limitations, you can configure the CLI to use grpc-web, which works over HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2.

Log in with grpc-web enabled:

akka auth login --use-grpc-web

If you’re already logged in but need to switch to grpc-web, configure it with:

akka config set api-server-use-grpc-web true

Managing Projects

The Akka CLI allows you to create, list, and configure projects.

Creating a New Project

To create a new project within your organization:

akka projects new sample-project "An example project in Akka"

This creates a project named sample-project with the description "An example project in Akka".

To set this new project as your current project:

akka config set project sample-project

Listing Projects

To list all projects accessible within your organization:

akka projects list

The CLI displays a list of available projects, with the current project marked by an asterisk (*).

Managing Container Registry Credentials

To allow Akka services to pull images from private Docker registries, add container registry credentials with the following command:

akka docker add-credentials \
  --docker-server https://mydockerregistry.com \
  --docker-username myself \
  --docker-password secret

Required flags: * --docker-server (e.g., https://mydockerregistry.com) * --docker-username (your Docker username) * --docker-password (your Docker password)

For more information about using the Akka Container Registry (ACR) or external container registries, see Configure a container registry.

Managing Services

The akka services commands allow you to interact with services in your current Akka project.

Listing Services

To list all services in the current project:

akka services list

The CLI displays a summary of all services, including their names and statuses.

Deploying a Service

To deploy a service using a Docker image, run:

akka services deploy my-service my-container-uri/container-name:tag-name

Ensure you’ve set up your container registry credentials before deploying. For more details, see container registry page.

Exposing a route for inbound traffic

To expose a service for inbound traffic:

akka services expose my-service --enable-cors

This command creates a route for the specified service, with the option to enable HTTP CORS using the --enable-cors flag.

Viewing Service Logs

To view logs from a specific service:

akka services logs my-service --follow

This command streams the logging output for the service.

Viewing Service Details

To view detailed information about a service:

akka services get my-service

This command returns a detailed description of the service’s configuration and status.

Inspecting Service Components

Akka services consist of one or more components. You can list and inspect these components using the following commands.

To list the components of a service:

akka services components my-service list

The CLI will display a list of components for the specified service:

NAME                                     TYPE           TYPE ID
com.example.api.ShoppingCartController   HttpEndpoint
com.example.api.ShoppingCartEntity       KeyValueEntity shopping-cart

This table shows the component names, their types, and any associated type IDs.

If you want to view the events from an event sourced entity you can use the akka service components list-events command.

Related documentation