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Overview

The applad instruct command is the CLI surface of the lad — Applad’s AI-powered assistant. You give instructions in plain language and the lad translates them into config changes, migrations, and applad up operations. Every instruction is attributed to your SSH key identity in the audit trail. The exact prompt is recorded alongside every change made — AI-assisted changes are always traceable to the human who authorized them.

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Basic Usage

applad instruct "your instruction here"
The lad will:
  1. Understand your request
  2. Plan the necessary changes
  3. Create or modify config files
  4. Generate migrations if needed
  5. Show you what it would do

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Scaffold and Configure

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Create database tables

applad instruct "create a users table with email, name, avatar, and soft delete"
Creates a new table definition file at tables/users.yaml with fields for email, name, avatar_url, and soft delete support (deleted_at). Also generates the corresponding migration SQL and updates .env.example if needed.

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Add search functionality

applad instruct "add fulltext search to posts"
Adds a fulltext index to the posts table’s title and body fields. Edits tables/posts.yaml to add the index definition and generates a migration that creates the fulltext index in the database.

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Create functions

applad instruct "create a function that sends a welcome message on user signup"
Creates a new function definition file at functions/send-welcome-message.yaml with a source block pointing to a local path, a trigger on auth.user.created, and appropriate container security settings. Also scaffolds the function source file at the configured path.

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Set up deployments

applad instruct "set up a Play Store deployment pipeline for my Flutter app"
Creates a deployment pipeline definition at deployments/android-production.yaml with type: play-store, a source block pointing to the project’s configured GitHub repo, and a build config for Flutter. Prompts for signing credential setup if not already configured. 
applad instruct "set up a web deployment for myapp.com"
Creates a web deployment definition at deployments/web.yaml with type: web, the configured domain, SSL, sensible security headers, and a source block pointing to the web app repo.

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Configure rate limiting

applad instruct "add rate limiting to the payments endpoint"
Adds a rate limiting rule to the payments endpoint in observability/observability.yaml — sets a per-user limit appropriate for payment operations.

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Create workflows

applad instruct "create a workflow that sends push and email when a post is published"
Creates a workflow definition at workflows/post-published.yaml that triggers on a post status change to published, sends a push notification via the push channel and an email via the email channel.

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Configure messaging templates

applad instruct "add a messaging template for order confirmation across email, sms and push"
Creates three messaging template reference files and prompts you to add the template content through the admin UI.

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Infrastructure

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Provision cloud resources

applad instruct "provision a Postgres instance on AWS RDS for production"
Adds an AWS RDS Postgres instance as a cloud adapter to the production environment in project.yaml. Updates database/database.yaml with a production environment override pointing to the RDS connection. Updates .env.example with the new required credentials. Then runs applad up --env production --dry-run so you can review before applying.

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Set up staging environments

applad instruct "set up staging to mirror production on a Hetzner VPS"
Creates or updates the staging environment in project.yaml to target a Hetzner VPS, mirroring the infrastructure configuration of the production environment. Runs applad up --env staging --dry-run for review.

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Migrate storage adapters

applad instruct "migrate our storage adapter from local to S3"
Updates storage/storage.yaml to use the S3 adapter, adds the required ${VAR} references, updates .env.example with S3_BUCKET, S3_REGION, S3_ACCESS_KEY, S3_SECRET_KEY, and runs applad up --dry-run so you can review the change.

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Switch email providers

applad instruct "switch email provider to SES for production"
Adds a production environment override to messaging/messaging.yaml switching the email provider from the current one to SES, adds the required credential references, and updates .env.example.

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Manage cloud VMs

applad instruct "spin up a cloud VM for this data processing job and tear it down when done"
Provisions an on-demand cloud VM, SSHes into it, runs the specified processing job in a Docker container, then tears the VM down when the job completes. The VM appears in applad cloud list while running. Cost and duration are logged to the runtime database.

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Optimize cloud resources

applad instruct "what cloud resources can we safely tear down?"
Reads the current list of cloud resources from applad cloud list, cross-references their usage patterns from the analytics database, and suggests which resources appear idle or underutilized and could be torn down.

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Debug and Diagnose

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Troubleshoot errors

applad instruct "why is my API error rate high?"
Reads the current API error rate from analytics, finds the requests contributing most to the error rate, cross-references function logs and database query traces, and gives a diagnosis with suggested fixes. 
applad instruct "what failed in the last web deployment?"
Reads the deployment log for the most recent web deployment, identifies the failing step, and explains what went wrong and how to fix it. 
applad instruct "why was the Play Store submission rejected?"
Reads the Play Store submission log for the most recent iOS build, identifies the rejection reason from the store API response, and explains what needs to change.

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Performance optimization

applad instruct "why is this query slow?"
Reads the slow query log from the analytics database, identifies the query, cross-references the table definition in tables/*.yaml, and suggests index changes that would improve performance. Generates the index definition and migration if you confirm.

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Security audits

applad instruct "is this permission rule safe?"
Reviews the permission rules for a specific table or set of tables in tables/*.yaml and identifies any rules that could allow unintended data access — missing auth filters, overly broad role permissions, or missing row-level filters. 
applad instruct "are there any security anomalies in the last 24 hours?"
Reads the security event log for the past 24 hours and surfaces any patterns that look anomalous — unusual volumes of failed auth, access from unexpected locations, permission denial spikes, or unusual instruct activity.

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Cost analysis

applad instruct "how much are we spending on cloud resources this month?"
Reads cloud resource lifecycle logs from the runtime database and produces a cost breakdown by resource type, project, and environment for the current month.

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Context Flags

Use --context to narrow the lad’s focus to a specific data source. Without --context the lad draws on all available sources. With --context it focuses specifically on the named source, giving faster and more precise answers for targeted questions.

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—context logs

Focuses the lad on recent log output. Useful for diagnosing a specific failure that just happened. 
applad instruct --context logs "what failed in the last hour?"

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—context tables

Focuses the lad on the tables/ directory. Useful for performance questions that relate specifically to schema and indexing decisions. 
applad instruct --context tables "suggest indexes for better query performance"

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—context security

Focuses the lad on the security event log. Useful for targeted security investigations. 
applad instruct --context security "are there any anomalous access patterns?"

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—context cloud

Focuses the lad on currently provisioned cloud resources. Useful for cost and utilization questions. 
applad instruct --context cloud "which resources are idle?"

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—context deployments

Focuses the lad on deployment logs and history. Useful for debugging a specific deployment failure. 
applad instruct --context deployments "why did the iOS build fail?"

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—context functions

Focuses the lad on function execution logs and error rates. 
applad instruct --context functions "which functions have the highest error rate?"

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—context instruct-history

Focuses the lad on the audit trail of previous instruct actions. Useful for reviewing what the lad (and who) changed recently, or for understanding the history of a specific piece of config. 
applad instruct --context instruct-history "what did alice change yesterday?"

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Dry Run

The --dry-run flag shows the complete plan the lad would execute without making any changes. Shows every file that would be created or modified, every migration that would be generated, and every applad up operation that would run. Use --dry-run to review and understand what an instruction would do before committing to it. Especially important for infrastructure changes and anything touching production. 
applad instruct --dry-run "add fulltext search to posts"
applad instruct --dry-run "provision RDS for production"
applad instruct --dry-run "set up staging to mirror production"
applad instruct --dry-run "create a function that processes payments"

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Scoping

By default instruct operates in the context of the active project and environment (set by applad projects switch and the current environment). Use these flags to override.

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—project

Runs the instruction in the context of a specific project regardless of which project is currently active. 
applad instruct --project mobile-app "why is staging slow?"

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—env

Runs the instruction in the context of a specific environment. Useful for asking environment-specific questions without switching your active environment. 
applad instruct --env production "show me anomalous access patterns"

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Examples

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Create a complete feature

# Create the table
applad instruct "create a comments table with user_id, post_id, content, and timestamps"

# Add search
applad instruct "add fulltext search to comments content"

# Create a notification workflow
applad instruct "create a workflow that notifies the post author when someone comments"

# Review before applying
applad instruct --dry-run "show me what would change"

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Diagnose and fix production issues

# Check for security issues
applad instruct --env production "are there any security anomalies in the last 24 hours?"

# Investigate errors
applad instruct --context logs --env production "what's causing the 500 errors?"

# Optimize performance
applad instruct --context tables "suggest indexes for slow queries"

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Set up infrastructure

# Review the plan first
applad instruct --dry-run "provision a Postgres instance on AWS RDS for production"

# Apply if it looks good
applad instruct "provision a Postgres instance on AWS RDS for production"

# Verify it worked
applad instruct --context cloud "show me our cloud resources"

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Best Practices

  • Always use —dry-run first for infrastructure changes and production deployments
  • Be specific in your instructions — the more context you provide, the better the result
  • Review the audit trail — every instruct action is logged with the exact prompt used
  • Use context flags for faster, more focused answers to targeted questions
  • Iterate incrementally — break large changes into smaller instructions you can review individually

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