ink

Use Ink

Ink is a cloud platform designed for AI agents to deploy and manage services autonomously. It makes deployments simple enough that fully autonomous agents can handle the entire lifecycle: create, deploy, monitor, and scale services without human intervention.

Preflight

Before any operation, verify the CLI is installed and authenticated:

command -v ink                    # CLI installed
ink whoami                        # authenticated

If the CLI is missing, install it:

npm install -g @mldotink/cli      # npm (macOS, Linux, Windows)
brew install mldotink/tap/ink     # Homebrew (macOS)

If not authenticated, run ink login.

Configuration

Ink CLI resolves context in this order (highest priority first):

1. CLI flags -- --api-key, --workspace, --project
2. Environment -- INK_API_KEY
3. Local config -- .ink file in current directory
4. Global config -- ~/.config/ink/config

Use ink whoami to check current auth. Use --json on any command for machine-readable output.

Git: Two Options

Ink supports two git providers. Use ink whoami to see which are available.

Option 1: Ink Internal Git (default)

Zero-setup, works for everyone. No GitHub account needed.

ink repos create my-app           # creates repo, shows git remote URL
git remote add ink <url>          # add the remote
git push ink main                 # push code -- auto-triggers deployment

Option 2: GitHub

Requires GitHub OAuth and GitHub App connected at https://ml.ink (Settings > GitHub).

ink deploy my-app --repo username/repo-name --host github --port 3000

Auto-Redeploy

Both git providers trigger automatic redeployment on push. After pushing code, just poll ink status <name> to track progress -- you do not need to redeploy manually.

Secrets & Environment Variables

Use ink secrets to manage env vars on running services. Changes are merged server-side and trigger an automatic redeploy.

For sensitive values (API keys, tokens, credentials), use ink secrets import to avoid leaking to shell history:

# From file
ink secrets import my-app --file .env

# From stdin (preferred for agents)
cat > .env.secrets <<EOF
DATABASE_URL=libsql://my-db-myworkspace.turso.io
DATABASE_AUTH_TOKEN=eyJhbG...
API_KEY=sk_live_xxx
EOF
ink secrets import my-app --file .env.secrets
rm .env.secrets

For non-sensitive values, ink secrets set is fine:

ink secrets set my-app NODE_ENV=production LOG_LEVEL=info

Other operations:

ink secrets list my-app                          # list current vars
ink secrets unset my-app OLD_KEY                 # remove a single var
ink secrets delete my-app KEY1 KEY2              # remove multiple vars
ink secrets import my-app --file .env --replace  # replace ALL vars (removes unspecified)

For initial deploy, use --env-file to pass secrets:

ink deploy my-app --repo my-app --port 3000 --env-file .env

Use --env only for non-sensitive values like NODE_ENV=production.

Common Operations

ink services                                      # list all services
ink status my-app                                 # service details
ink logs my-app                                   # runtime logs
ink logs my-app --build                           # build logs
ink deploy my-app --repo my-app --port 3000       # deploy new service
ink redeploy my-app                               # redeploy existing
ink redeploy my-app --memory 1Gi --vcpu 1         # redeploy with new config
ink delete my-app                                 # delete service

ink template                                      # list available templates
ink template info postgres                        # preview variables & services
ink template deploy postgres --name my-pg         # deploy a template stack

ink secrets set my-app KEY=value                  # set env vars (merges)
ink secrets import my-app --file .env             # import from file
ink secrets list my-app                           # list env vars
ink secrets unset my-app KEY                      # remove env var
ink secrets delete my-app KEY1 KEY2               # remove multiple

ink domains add my-app app.example.com            # add custom domain
ink domains remove my-app app.example.com         # remove custom domain

ink dns zones                                     # list DNS zones
ink dns records example.com                       # list records
ink dns add example.com --name sub --type A --content 1.2.3.4
ink dns delete example.com <record-id>

ink repos create my-app                           # create internal git repo
ink repos token my-app                            # get push token

ink projects list                                 # list projects
ink workspaces                                    # list workspaces

Templates

Templates deploy pre-configured stacks (databases, caches, etc.) with a single command. The most common template is postgres — use it whenever the user needs a database.

Always preview before deploying to see required variables:

ink template                                      # list all templates
ink template info postgres                        # show variables, services, and example commands
ink template deploy postgres --name my-pg         # deploy (prompts for missing required vars)
ink template deploy postgres --name my-pg --var db_name=myapp  # pass variables inline

Use --json to get machine-readable output with connection credentials from outputs.

Deployment Flows

Deploy a service

# 1. Create a repo and push code
ink repos create my-app
git remote add ink <gitRemote_from_output>
git push ink main

# 2. Deploy
ink deploy my-app --repo my-app --port 3000

# 3. Check status (status goes: queued -> building -> deploying -> active)
ink status my-app

Deploy a full-stack app (API + frontend)

# 1. Deploy backend
ink repos create my-api
git remote add ink <url>
git push ink main
ink deploy my-api --repo my-api --port 8080

# 2. Wait for backend to be active
ink status my-api

# 3. Deploy frontend with backend URL
ink repos create my-frontend
git remote add ink-frontend <url>
git push ink-frontend main
ink deploy my-frontend --repo my-frontend --port 3000 \
  --env VITE_API_URL=https://my-api.ml.ink

Deploy with a database

Use templates to provision databases. Always run ink template info <slug> first to see required variables.

# 1. Preview the template to see variables and services
ink template info postgres --json

# 2. Deploy the database template (returns connection credentials in outputs)
ink template deploy postgres --name my-pg --json
# Save the outputs (DATABASE_URL, etc.) from the response

# 3. Deploy your service
ink deploy my-app --repo my-app --port 3000

# 4. Wire credentials to your service
cat > .env.secrets <<EOF
DATABASE_URL=<DATABASE_URL from step 2>
EOF
ink secrets import my-app --file .env.secrets
rm .env.secrets

You can pass template variables with --var KEY=VALUE:

ink template deploy postgres --name my-pg --var db_name=myapp --var storage_gi=20

Deploy a static site or SPA

For frontend apps (React, Vue, Vite, Next.js static export, etc.) that build to a directory of static files. No --port needed — Ink serves via nginx automatically.

ink repos create my-site
git remote add ink <url>
git push ink main
ink deploy my-site --repo my-site --publish-dir dist

Use --publish-dir to specify where the build output goes (dist, build, out, etc.). Ink runs the build step then serves the result as static files.

For SPAs with an API backend, pass the API URL as a build-time env var:

ink deploy my-site --repo my-site --publish-dir dist \
  --env VITE_API_URL=https://my-api.ml.ink

Deploy from a monorepo

# 1. Create one repo for the monorepo
ink repos create my-monorepo
git remote add ink <url>
git push ink main

# 2. Deploy backend from backend/ subdirectory
ink deploy mono-api --repo my-monorepo --root-dir backend --port 8080

# 3. Deploy frontend from frontend/ subdirectory (public URL is not a secret)
ink deploy mono-web --repo my-monorepo --root-dir frontend --publish-dir dist \
  --env VITE_API_URL=https://mono-api.ml.ink

Deploy from GitHub

Requires GitHub OAuth and App connected at https://ml.ink.

ink deploy my-app --repo username/repo-name --host github --port 3000

Pushes to the GitHub repo automatically trigger redeployment via webhook.

Add a custom domain

Requires a DNS zone delegated to Ink first (via https://ml.ink/dns).

ink dns zones                                     # verify zone is active
ink domains add my-app app.example.com            # auto-creates DNS + TLS

Update a service (scale, env vars, config)

Use ink secrets for env var changes. Use ink redeploy for resource/config changes. Pushing code auto-redeploys -- you don't need to call redeploy for that.

# Add or update non-sensitive env vars
ink secrets set my-app NODE_ENV=production LOG_LEVEL=info

# Add secrets via file (avoids shell history exposure)
ink secrets import my-app --file .env.secrets

# Scale up memory and CPU
ink redeploy my-app --memory 1Gi --vcpu 1

Debug a failing deployment

ink status my-app                                 # check status and error
ink logs my-app                                   # check runtime logs
ink logs my-app --build                           # check build logs

Service Configuration

Option	Values	Default
Memory	128Mi, 256Mi, 512Mi, 1024Mi, 2048Mi, 4096Mi	256Mi
vCPUs	0.1, 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4	0.25
Region	eu-central-1	eu-central-1
Branch	any git branch	main

Guidelines

• Install the CLI first. If command -v ink fails, install with npm install -g @mldotink/cli.
• Check ink services before deploying to see if a service already exists. Use ink deploy for new services and ink redeploy for existing ones.
• Pushing code auto-redeploys. After git push, just poll ink status to track progress.
• Use --json flag for machine-readable output when you need to parse results.
• Memory: 128Mi, 256Mi (default), 512Mi, 1024Mi, 2048Mi, 4096Mi.
• vCPUs: 0.1, 0.2, 0.25 (default), 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4.
• When deploying, confirm the repo URL and branch with the user first.
• Use ink secrets import for sensitive values (credentials, tokens, API keys). Write to a temp file, import, delete the file. Never pass secrets as CLI arguments — they leak to shell history and process listings.
• Use ink secrets set only for non-sensitive vars like NODE_ENV=production. Never use ink redeploy --env to update vars — it replaces all vars.
• Never hardcode or guess secret values. Secrets should come from the user, from template deploy outputs, or from other Ink CLI output.
• Show the service URL after successful deployment.
• Zone delegation (for custom domains) must be set up by the user at https://ml.ink/dns before you can use ink domains add.
• Track what you deploy. After creating repos, services, or templates, record the workspace, project, service names, and endpoints in the project's CLAUDE.md (or AGENTS.md if it exists). This lets future agent sessions find and manage deployed resources without asking the user. Example:

  ## Ink Deployment
  - Workspace: my-team
  - Project: backend
  - Services: my-api (https://my-api.ml.ink), my-worker
  - Git remote: ink (git.ml.ink/my-team/my-api)