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

Migrations and seed application happen automatically inside the runtime — there's no separate init/seed step. Just start the dev server (or deploy) and the first request runs pending migrations and applies the bundled seed if the database is empty.

# Start dev server (runs migrations, applies seed on empty DB, starts Astro)
npx emdash dev

# Start dev server and generate types from remote
npx emdash dev --types

# 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.