Simple VPS CLI

scli manages Simple VPS from your terminal and from scripts. It works through the same API as the Cloud Panel.

Install

Windows

In PowerShell. It puts scli.exe into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\scli and adds that folder to your PATH, without admin rights:

irm https://serverscamp.com/scli/install.ps1 | iex

It prints the version when it is done, and scli works in that window and in new ones. ssh for scli vps ssh comes with Windows 10 and 11.

Linux and macOS

The script puts scli into /usr/local/bin and asks for sudo, or into ~/.local/bin where there is no sudo:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/serverscamp/scli/main/install.sh | sh
scli version

By hand

Every build is in the latest release: Windows, Linux and macOS, Intel and ARM, with checksums.txt. Rename the file to scli (scli.exe on Windows) and put it in a folder on your PATH.

Sign in

Sign in once. scli shows a code and opens the Cloud Panel in your browser; allow it there, and the token is saved in ~/.scli/config.

scli auth login

On a server without a browser, open the link it prints on any device where you are signed in. Or make a token in the Cloud Panel under Settings, API tokens and give it to scli:

scli auth login --api-key sc_...

scli auth status checks the token and shows the balance; scli auth logout forgets it on this computer. The token itself works until you delete it in the Cloud Panel.

A first server

Save your public key, pick a plan and a system, and make the server. With --wait it returns when SSH answers, usually within a minute.

scli ssh-keys add laptop --file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
scli vps plans
scli vps images
scli vps create web-1 --plan vps2-1 --image ubuntu-26.04 --ssh-key laptop --wait
scli vps ssh web-1

✓ Creating web-1-3f9a1c.vm.scamp.pro (12d46f8c-d66e-4163-99aa-1245d5b06e5b), IPv4 185.236.9.61
✓ Running. Sign in with: ssh [email protected]

The name is 3 to 24 lowercase letters, digits and hyphens. The server gets the hostname NAME-xxxxxx.vm.scamp.pro, and wherever a command takes VPS you can give the name or the id.

Servers

scli vps ssh VPS signs you in as root. Words after the name go to ssh as options, and a command after -- runs on the server:

scli vps ssh web-1 -i ~/.ssh/work_key -- uptime

Power

Each one answers at once and the server does it in the background; add --wait to return when it is done. Right after a create or a reinstall the system needs about a minute before it takes shutdown and reboot.

Reinstall and resize

Reverse DNS

Backups

Metrics

SSH keys

Wherever a command takes KEY, give the key's name or id.

In scripts

Every command takes --json and then prints the API answer as it came, the same as in the API reference. Errors go to stderr and the exit code is 1.

scli vps ls --json | jq -r '.items[] | select(.status == "running") | .ipv4'

Commands that erase data ask you to type the server's name; in a script, add --yes. A root password goes in through stdin with --password-stdin, so it stays out of the shell history and the process list:

printf '%s\n' "$ROOT_PASSWORD" | scli vps create db-1 --plan vps2-2 --image debian-13 --password-stdin --wait

scli vps create sends an Idempotency-Key and asks again with the same key when an answer is lost, so a dropped connection never makes a second server. To retry across runs of your own script, give the key yourself with --idempotency-key.

A server for one CI job:

export SCLI_API_KEY="$SERVERSCAMP_TOKEN"
scli vps create ci-runner --plan vps2-2 --image ubuntu-26.04 --ssh-key deploy --wait --json
# ... use it ...
scli vps rm ci-runner --yes --wait

Environment