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Description

DVC remote commands help you configure and manage remote storage locations where DVC stores cached data and model files. Remotes can be cloud storage (S3, GCS, Azure), network storage (SSH, HDFS), or local directories.

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Subcommands

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remote add

Add a new data remote. 
dvc remote add myremote s3://mybucket/path

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Arguments

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name
string
required
Name of the remote (converted to lowercase).
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url
string
required
Remote location. Supported URLs include:
  • s3://bucket/path - Amazon S3
  • gs://bucket/path - Google Cloud Storage
  • azure://container/path - Azure Blob Storage
  • ssh://user@host/path - SSH/SFTP
  • hdfs://namenode/path - HDFS
  • /local/path - Local directory
  • http://example.com/path - HTTP
See full list of supported URLs.

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Options

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-d, --default
flag
Set as default remote.
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-f, --force
flag
Force overwriting existing configs.
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--global
flag
Use global config (~/.config/dvc/config).
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--system
flag
Use system config.
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--project
flag
Use project config (.dvc/config).
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--local
flag
Use local config (.dvc/config.local).

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remote default

Set/unset the default data remote. 
dvc remote default myremote

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Arguments

​
name
string
Name of the remote to set as default. Omit to show current default.

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Options

​
-u, --unset
flag
Unset default remote.
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--global
flag
Use global config.
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--system
flag
Use system config.
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--project
flag
Use project config.
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--local
flag
Use local config.

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remote list

List all available data remotes. 
dvc remote list

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Example Output

myremote    s3://mybucket/path    (default)
backup      gs://backup-bucket/dvc-storage
local       /mnt/shared/dvc-cache
The default remote is highlighted in green and marked with “(default)“.

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remote modify

Modify the configuration of a data remote. 
dvc remote modify myremote access_key_id AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
dvc remote modify myremote secret_access_key wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

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Arguments

​
name
string
required
Name of the remote.
​
option
string
required
Name of the option to modify. Common options:
  • access_key_id, secret_access_key - AWS credentials
  • region - AWS region
  • profile - AWS profile name
  • endpointurl - Custom endpoint URL
  • ssl_verify - Enable/disable SSL verification
  • url - Change remote URL
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value
string
Value of the option. Omit when using --unset.

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Options

​
-u, --unset
flag
Unset option.
​
--global
flag
Use global config.
​
--system
flag
Use system config.
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--project
flag
Use project config.
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--local
flag
Use local config.

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remote remove

Remove a data remote. 
dvc remote remove myremote

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Arguments

​
name
string
required
Name of the remote to remove.

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Options

​
--global
flag
Use global config.
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--system
flag
Use system config.
​
--project
flag
Use project config.
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--local
flag
Use local config.

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remote rename

Rename a DVC remote. 
dvc remote rename oldname newname

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Arguments

​
name
string
required
Remote to be renamed.
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new
string
required
New name of the remote.

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Options

​
--global
flag
Use global config.
​
--system
flag
Use system config.
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--project
flag
Use project config.
​
--local
flag
Use local config.

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Examples

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Setting Up AWS S3 Remote

# Add S3 remote
dvc remote add -d storage s3://my-bucket/dvc-storage

# Configure AWS credentials (stored in .dvc/config.local)
dvc remote modify --local storage access_key_id AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
dvc remote modify --local storage secret_access_key wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

# Set region
dvc remote modify storage region us-east-1

# Push data to remote
dvc push
Store credentials in .dvc/config.local (not tracked by Git) using --local flag for security.

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Setting Up Google Cloud Storage

# Add GCS remote
dvc remote add -d storage gs://my-bucket/dvc-storage

# Configure using service account
dvc remote modify storage credentialpath credentials.json

# Or use default application credentials
dvc remote modify storage credentialpath ''

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Multiple Remotes for Different Purposes

# Production remote
dvc remote add prod s3://prod-bucket/dvc-cache
dvc remote default prod

# Staging remote
dvc remote add staging s3://staging-bucket/dvc-cache

# Local backup
dvc remote add backup /mnt/backup/dvc-storage

# Push to specific remote
dvc push -r staging

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SSH Remote with Key Authentication

# Add SSH remote
dvc remote add storage ssh://[email protected]/data/dvc-storage

# Configure SSH key
dvc remote modify storage keyfile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# Set custom port
dvc remote modify storage port 2222

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Supported Storage Types

Amazon S3

AWS S3 and S3-compatible storage (MinIO, DigitalOcean Spaces)

Google Cloud Storage

GCS buckets with service account or default credentials

Azure Blob Storage

Azure containers with connection string or SAS token

SSH/SFTP

Remote servers via SSH with key or password authentication

HDFS

Hadoop Distributed File System

HTTP/HTTPS

Read-only HTTP servers (for pulling data)

Local Directory

Network-mounted directories or local paths

WebDAV

WebDAV protocol (Nextcloud, ownCloud)

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Configuration Levels

DVC supports four configuration levels (in order of precedence):
1

Local (.dvc/config.local)

Machine-specific settings, not tracked by Git. Use for credentials.
2

Project (.dvc/config)

Project-wide settings, tracked by Git. Use for remote URLs.
3

Global (~/.config/dvc/config)

User-wide settings across all projects.
4

System (/etc/dvc/config)

System-wide settings for all users.
Security Best Practice: Never commit credentials to Git. Always use --local flag when setting sensitive options like access_key_id or password.

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Common Remote Options

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AWS S3 Options

  • access_key_id - AWS access key
  • secret_access_key - AWS secret key
  • region - AWS region (e.g., us-east-1)
  • profile - AWS CLI profile name
  • endpoint_url - Custom S3 endpoint
  • ssl_verify - Enable/disable SSL verification

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Google Cloud Storage Options

  • credentialpath - Path to service account JSON file
  • projectname - GCP project name

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Azure Options

  • connection_string - Azure storage connection string
  • account_name - Storage account name
  • sas_token - Shared Access Signature token

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SSH Options

  • keyfile - Path to SSH private key
  • password - SSH password
  • port - SSH port (default: 22)
  • timeout - Connection timeout
  • dvc push - Upload data to remote storage
  • dvc pull - Download data from remote storage
  • dvc fetch - Download data to cache without checkout
  • dvc config - Direct configuration management

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