CLI overview

Learn how to use the Flash CLI for local development and deployment.

The Flash CLI provides commands for initializing projects, running local development servers, building deployment artifacts, and managing your applications on Runpod Serverless.

The Flash CLI is being succeeded by the rp CLI in the core runpod package. Most commands map directly (for example, flash deploy becomes rp deploy). See Migrate to the apps SDK for the full command mapping.

Before using the CLI, make sure you’ve installed Flash.

Available commands

Command	Description
flash init	Create a new Flash project with a template structure
flash login	Authenticate with Runpod using your API key
flash dev	Start the local development server with automatic updates
flash build	Build a deployment artifact without deploying
flash deploy	Build and deploy your application to Runpod
flash env	Manage deployment environments
flash app	Manage Flash applications
flash undeploy	Remove deployed endpoints
flash update	Update Flash to the latest or a specific version

Getting help

View help for any command by adding --help:

flash --help
flash deploy --help
flash env --help

Authentication

Authenticate with Runpod:

flash login

This command opens your browser to authenticate with Runpod. After you approve the request, your API key is saved locally for future CLI operations. See flash login for details.

Alternatively, set the RUNPOD_API_KEY environment variable:

export RUNPOD_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Using uv

If you installed Flash with uv, prefix all Flash commands with uv run:

uv run flash login
uv run flash dev
uv run flash deploy

Common workflows

Local development

# Create a new project
flash init PROJECT_NAME
cd PROJECT_NAME

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Add your API key to .env
# Start the development server
flash dev

Deploy to production

# Build and deploy
flash deploy

# Deploy to a specific environment
flash deploy --env ENVIRONMENT_NAME

Manage deployments

# List environments
flash env list

# Check environment status
flash env get ENVIRONMENT_NAME

# Remove an environment
flash env delete ENVIRONMENT_NAME

Clean up endpoints

# List deployed endpoints
flash undeploy list

# Remove specific endpoint
flash undeploy ENDPOINT_NAME

# Remove all endpoints
flash undeploy --all