Command Line Interface

Gitpod supports a command line interface that is available in each workspace terminal called gp:

init

Gitpod workspaces can be configured - see Configuring Workspaces for more details. gp init generates a default .gitpod.yml file. You can customize it to match your requirements.

Alternatively, gp init -i is an interactive guide which helps create the .gitpod.yml configuration file based on a few questions you answer.

open

Modern editors/IDE’s support command line tooling to open a file (e.g. VS Code code foo.txt). In Gitpod, this can be done using gp open <filename>. We also added common aliases for gp open: code and open.

preview

gp preview is similar to gp open, except that it does not open a file in the editor but a URL in a preview pane on the right.

Make sure you provide a valid URL, i.e. including the protocol. For example, http://localhost:8080.

url

Gitpod workspaces can expose services to the internet. gp url provides the URL which points to a service served from a Gitpod workspace. For example gp url 8080 prints the URL which points to the service listening on port 8080 in this current workspace.

You can combine the preview and the url command to open a certain path instead of the default URL.

For instance:

If you put this into the .gitpod.yml to open the a certain page on startup, make sure you ignore the default action when the port opens.

env

With gp env API_ENDPOINT=https://api.example.com you can set an API_ENDPOINT environment variable that is accessible for this project, even if you stop the workspace and start a new one.

To delete or unset an environment variable, you use gp env -u API_ENDPOINT.

Please refer to the help output provided by gp env --help for more use cases of the gp env command.

sync-await

In situations where you work with multiple terminals and one depends on a task in another terminal to complete, gp sync-await <name> waits until you call gp sync-done <name> in another terminal.

See Start Tasks for a real-world example.

sync-done

To notify a gp sync-await <name> call (see previous chapter), you can call gp sync-done <name>.

A common use case is the following where we have three terminals:

• Terminal 1: A build process takes several minutes to complete. At the end, you call gp sync-done build.
• Terminal 2: You use gp sync-await build && npm run start-database to wait for the build to complete before you start a database
• Terminal 3: You use gp sync-await build && npm run dev to wait for the build to complete before you start the dev server.

See Start Tasks for a real-world example.

snapshot

For sharing a complete clone of a workspace with others, gp snapshot is basically the CLI method for getting a snapshot URL. To learn more about snapshots, see Collaboration & Sharing of Workspaces

stop

gp stop is the CLI method of stopping a workspace.

tasks

Programmatically view and interact with workspace tasks as defined in the project’s .gitpod.yml. Useful when using the command line, such as ssh’ing into a workspace or after accidentally losing view of a terminal and it’s output.

list

Returns a table-formatted list of tasks, their name, state and the ID of the terminal in which the task is executed.

attach

Creates a connection from a user terminal to a given workspace’s task terminal. The session is interactive. Once attached, both stdin and stdout are streamed between the user and the remote terminal. Allowing the user to run commands directly in the task terminal.

Run without arguments to get a selection prompt. When only one task is running, attach will skip the prompt and automatically connect.

Alternatively, specify the Terminal ID that you can see with gp tasks list:

timeout

Interact with workspace timeout configuration. You can learn more in Life of a Workspace.

extend

Extends the current workspace’s timeout.

Note: You can only have one workspace with extended timeout at a time.

The default timeout, and the ability to extend a workspace timeout depends on your plan or team plan.

show

Shows the current workspace’s timeout. The workspace timeout may be extended using gp timeout extend if available on the user’s plan or team plan.

ports

Provides a way to manage a workspace’s ports. Applies to both: ports defined in .gitpod.yml and ports that are undeclared but are opened during the lifetime of the workspace.

list

Outputs a table-formatted list of ports along with their status, URL, name and description.

expose

In Gitpod, services/servers running on a port need to be exposed before they become accessible from the internet. This process only works with services listening on 0.0.0.0 and not just localhost. Sometimes it is not possible to make a server listen on 0.0.0.0, e.g. because it is not your code and there are simply no means of configuration.

In that case, gp ports expose <port> can be used to forward all traffic form a socket listing on all network interfaces to your process listening on localhost only.

await

When writing tasks to be executed on workspace start, one sometimes wants to wait for an http service to be available. gp ports await does that.

Here’s an example that will open a certain path once a service is a available:

top

Displays the used and available workspace CPU and memory.