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The Frontier CLI is a powerful command-line tool for managing your Frontier instance. It provides commands for server management, database migrations, and resource management including users, organizations, projects, groups, roles, permissions, and policies.

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What is the Frontier CLI?

Frontier CLI is a unified command-line interface for:
  • Server Management - Start, configure, and manage Frontier server instances
  • Database Operations - Run migrations and manage database schema
  • Resource Management - Create and manage users, organizations, projects, and groups
  • Authorization - Configure roles, permissions, and policies
  • Development - Seed sample data and generate configuration files

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Key Features

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Server Commands

Manage your Frontier server with ease:
  • Initialize server configuration
  • Start and run the server
  • Perform database migrations
  • Generate RSA keys for authentication

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Resource Management

Full CRUD operations for all Frontier resources:
  • Users - Create, update, view, and list users
  • Organizations - Manage organizations and their admins
  • Projects - Handle project lifecycle within organizations
  • Groups - Organize users into groups
  • Service Users - Manage service accounts for API access

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Authorization

Configure fine-grained access control:
  • Permissions - Define what actions can be performed
  • Roles - Group permissions into roles
  • Policies - Assign roles to users and resources
  • Namespaces - Organize permissions by domain

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Development Tools

  • Seed Command - Bootstrap sample data for testing
  • Config Management - Initialize and manage client configurations
  • Preferences - Set platform-wide and resource-specific preferences

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Command Structure

Frontier CLI follows a hierarchical command structure: 
frontier <command> <subcommand> [flags]

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Example Commands

# Start the server
frontier server start -c config.yaml

# Run migrations
frontier server migrate

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Authentication

Most CLI commands require authentication via header flags. The authentication header is configured in your server config and typically looks like: 
frontier user create --file user.json --header X-Frontier-Email:[email protected]
The header format is <key>:<value> where the key is your configured identity proxy header.
The authentication header key is configured in your Frontier server configuration under app.identity_proxy_header. Common values include X-Frontier-Email or X-Auth-Email.

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Configuration

The CLI can be configured using:
  1. Configuration Files - Use -c or --config flag to specify server config
  2. Client Config - Initialize with frontier config init
  3. Environment Variables - See Environment Variables

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Environment Variables

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RAYSTACK_CONFIG_DIR
string
Directory where Frontier stores configuration files. Default: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/raystack or $HOME/.config/raystack
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NO_COLOR
string
Set to any value to disable ANSI color output
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CLICOLOR
string
Set to 0 to disable ANSI colors in output

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Getting Help

Get help for any command using the --help flag: 
frontier --help
frontier server --help
frontier user create --help

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Help Topics

Frontier provides additional help topics: 
# View environment variables
frontier help environment

# View authentication help
frontier help auth

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Common Workflows

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Setting Up a New Frontier Instance

  1. Initialize server configuration: 
    frontier server init -o config.yaml
  2. Run database migrations: 
    frontier server migrate -c config.yaml
  3. Start the server: 
    frontier server start -c config.yaml
  4. Seed sample data (optional): 
    frontier seed -H X-Frontier-Email:[email protected]

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Managing Users and Organizations

  1. Create a user: 
    frontier user create --file user.json -H X-Frontier-Email:[email protected]
  2. Create an organization: 
    frontier organization create --file org.json -H X-Frontier-Email:[email protected]
  3. Create a project in the organization: 
    frontier project create --file project.json -H X-Frontier-Email:[email protected]

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Next Steps

Installation

Install the Frontier CLI on your system

Commands Reference

Complete reference of all CLI commands

Shell Autocomplete

Enable command autocompletion

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