Terminal

Every app has a terminal: a command line inside the app's own sandbox, in your browser, on a laptop or a phone. It runs as the app's own user, in its web process or one of its workers, with the app's files and variables. Nothing to install, and no SSH key.

Open it

1. Open the app's page.

2. Choose Terminal.

3. Under Process, choose the web process or a worker.

The prompt shows who you are and which app, like asha@web for Asha's app web. When you see Connected, type.

Example: Asha checks her queue

Asha's order emails seem late. She opens the terminal of her app web and types:

php artisan queue:failed
php artisan queue:retry all

The first lists failed jobs; one shows her mail password expired. She updates MAIL_PASSWORD in Variables, redeploys, then retries the jobs from the terminal.

Other things people do:

php artisan tinker
python manage.py shell
ls storage/app

When it closes

When it closes, everything you started in it stops too, even programs sent to the background or started with nohup. Choose Open again to start a new one. For long jobs, use a worker or a scheduled task instead.

Files you change here

An app's code can't be changed while it runs; only its permanent folders (like Laravel's storage) and its home folder can be written, and they're kept between deploys. See Permanent folders. On a WordPress or PHP site, the files are the site itself, so changes stay.

What's recorded

Each terminal's start and end are in the project's activity: who opened it, on which app and process, how long it stayed open and why it closed. What you type is never recorded.

Safe by design

• The app's own user: the terminal has the same rights as your app, and no more. It can't reach other projects or our machines.

• No open door: nothing listens for SSH on the internet. The connection goes from your browser through your dashboard login.

If it doesn't open