Emdash CLI

EmDash CLI

The EmDash CLI (emdash or ec) manages EmDash CMS instances. Commands fall into two categories:

• Local commands — work directly on a SQLite file, no running server needed: init, dev, seed, export-seed, auth secret
• Remote commands — talk to a running EmDash instance via HTTP: types, login, logout, whoami, content, schema, media, search, taxonomy, menu

Authentication

Remote commands resolve auth automatically:

1. --token flag
2. EMDASH_TOKEN env var
3. Stored credentials from emdash login
4. Dev bypass (localhost only — no token needed)

For local dev servers, just run the command — auth is handled automatically. For remote instances, run emdash login --url https://my-site.pages.dev first.

Custom Headers & Reverse Proxies

Sites behind Cloudflare Access or other reverse proxies need auth headers on every request. The CLI supports this via --header flags and environment variables.

Service Tokens (Recommended for CI/Automation)

# Single header
npx emdash login --url https://my-site.pages.dev \
  --header "CF-Access-Client-Id: xxx.access" \
  --header "CF-Access-Client-Secret: yyy"

# Short form
npx emdash login -H "CF-Access-Client-Id: xxx" -H "CF-Access-Client-Secret: yyy"

# Via environment (newline-separated)
export EMDASH_HEADERS="CF-Access-Client-Id: xxx
CF-Access-Client-Secret: yyy"
npx emdash login --url https://my-site.pages.dev

Headers are persisted to ~/.config/emdash/auth.json after login, so subsequent commands inherit them automatically.

Cloudflare Access Browser Flow

If you don't have service tokens and cloudflared is installed, the CLI will automatically:

1. Detect when Access blocks the request
2. Try to get a cached JWT via cloudflared access token
3. Fall back to cloudflared access login for browser-based auth

This works for interactive use but isn't suitable for CI. Use service tokens for automation.

Generic Reverse Proxy Auth

The --header flag works with any auth scheme:

# Basic auth
npx emdash login --url https://example.com -H "Authorization: Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz"

# Custom auth header
npx emdash login --url https://example.com -H "X-API-Key: secret123"

Quick Reference

Database Setup

For normal site startup, use the project's package script. The first request runs pending migrations and applies the bundled seed when the database is empty and setup has not been completed. The Astro integration generates emdash-env.d.ts when the server starts.

# Start the site with its package script
pnpm dev

# Export an existing database as a seed file
# (the runtime auto-discovers .emdash/seed.json on first boot;
# `mkdir -p` because the directory may not exist yet)
mkdir -p .emdash
npx emdash export-seed > .emdash/seed.json
npx emdash export-seed --with-content > .emdash/seed.json

Type Generation

# Generate types from local dev server
npx emdash types

# Generate from remote
npx emdash types --url https://my-site.pages.dev

# Custom output path
npx emdash types --output src/types/cms.ts

Writes .emdash/types.ts (TypeScript interfaces) and .emdash/schema.json.

Authentication

# Login (OAuth Device Flow)
npx emdash login --url https://my-site.pages.dev

# Check current user
npx emdash whoami

# Logout
npx emdash logout

# Generate auth secret for deployment
npx emdash auth secret

Content CRUD

The CLI is designed for agents. Create and update auto-publish by default so agents get read-after-write consistency without managing drafts.

# List content
npx emdash content list posts
npx emdash content list posts --status published --limit 10

# Get a single item (Portable Text fields converted to markdown)
# Returns draft data if a pending draft exists
npx emdash content get posts 01ABC123
npx emdash content get posts 01ABC123 --raw        # skip PT->markdown conversion
npx emdash content get posts 01ABC123 --published   # ignore pending drafts

# Create content (auto-publishes by default)
npx emdash content create posts --data '{"title": "Hello", "body": "# World"}'
npx emdash content create posts --file post.json --slug hello-world
npx emdash content create posts --draft --data '...'  # keep as draft
cat post.json | npx emdash content create posts --stdin

# Update (requires --rev from a prior get, auto-publishes by default)
npx emdash content update posts 01ABC123 --rev MToyMDI2... --data '{"title": "Updated"}'
npx emdash content update posts 01ABC123 --rev MToyMDI2... --draft --data '...'  # keep as draft

# Delete (soft delete)
npx emdash content delete posts 01ABC123

# Lifecycle
npx emdash content publish posts 01ABC123
npx emdash content unpublish posts 01ABC123
npx emdash content schedule posts 01ABC123 --at 2026-03-01T09:00:00Z
npx emdash content restore posts 01ABC123

Schema Management

# List collections
npx emdash schema list

# Get collection with fields
npx emdash schema get posts

# Create collection
npx emdash schema create articles --label Articles --description "Blog articles"

# Delete collection
npx emdash schema delete articles --force

# Add field
npx emdash schema add-field posts body --type portableText --label "Body Content"
npx emdash schema add-field posts featured --type boolean --required

# Remove field
npx emdash schema remove-field posts featured

Field types: string, text, number, integer, boolean, datetime, select, multiSelect, image, file, reference, portableText, json, slug, url. See FIELD_TYPE_TO_COLUMN in packages/core/src/schema/types.ts for the authoritative list.

Media

# List media
npx emdash media list
npx emdash media list --mime image/png

# Upload
npx emdash media upload ./photo.jpg --alt "A sunset" --caption "Bristol, 2026"

# Get / delete
npx emdash media get 01MEDIA123
npx emdash media delete 01MEDIA123

Search

npx emdash search "hello world"
npx emdash search "hello" --collection posts --limit 5

Taxonomies

npx emdash taxonomy list
npx emdash taxonomy terms categories
npx emdash taxonomy add-term categories --name "Tech" --slug tech
npx emdash taxonomy add-term categories --name "Frontend" --parent 01PARENT123

Menus

npx emdash menu list
npx emdash menu get primary

Drafts and Publishing

The CLI auto-publishes on create and update by default. This means:

• create creates the item and immediately publishes it
• update updates the item and publishes if a draft revision was created
• get returns draft data if a pending draft exists (e.g. from the admin UI)

Use --draft on create/update to skip auto-publishing. Use --published on get to ignore pending drafts.

Collections that support revisions store edits as draft revisions. The CLI handles this transparently — agents don't need to know whether a collection uses revisions or not.

JSON Output

All remote commands support --json for machine-readable output. It's auto-enabled when stdout is piped.

# Pipe to jq
npx emdash content list posts --json | jq '.items[].slug'

# Use in scripts
ID=$(npx emdash content create posts --data '{"title":"Hello"}' --json | jq -r '.id')

Editing Flow

For details on how content editing works — Portable Text/markdown conversion, _rev tokens, and raw mode — see EDITING-FLOW.md.