Render CLI Skill

Manage Render cloud services and datastores directly from the terminal using the Render CLI.

When to Use

• Deploying or restarting a Render service
• Listing services, deploys, or datastores
• Opening SSH or psql sessions to Render resources
• Viewing live service logs
• Validating render.yaml blueprint files
• Scripting Render operations in CI/CD

Requirements

• render CLI installed (brew install render or other methods)
• Authenticated via render login or RENDER_API_KEY env var

Commands

Authentication

# Interactive login (opens browser)
render login

# Or set API key for non-interactive use
export RENDER_API_KEY=rnd_...

Workspaces

# List workspaces
render workspaces

# Set active workspace
render workspace set

Services

# List all services and datastores (interactive)
render services

# List services as JSON (non-interactive)
render services --output json --confirm

Deploys

# List deploys for a service
render deploys list [SERVICE_ID]

# Trigger a deploy
render deploys create [SERVICE_ID]

# Deploy a specific commit
render deploys create [SERVICE_ID] --commit [SHA] --confirm

# Deploy a specific Docker image
render deploys create [SERVICE_ID] --image [URL] --confirm

# Deploy and wait for completion (useful in CI)
render deploys create [SERVICE_ID] --wait --confirm

SSH

# SSH into a running service instance
render ssh [SERVICE_ID]

# Launch an ephemeral shell (isolated, no start command)
render ssh [SERVICE_ID] --ephemeral

Postgres (psql)

# Open interactive psql session
render psql [DATABASE_ID]

# Run a single query
render psql [DATABASE_ID] -c "SELECT NOW();" -o text

# Query results as JSON
render psql [DATABASE_ID] -c "SELECT id, name FROM projects LIMIT 5;" -o json

# CSV output via psql passthrough
render psql [DATABASE_ID] -c "SELECT id, email FROM users;" -o text -- --csv

Blueprints

# Validate render.yaml (defaults to ./render.yaml)
render blueprints validate

# Validate a specific file
render blueprints validate path/to/render.yaml

Non-Interactive Mode

For scripting and CI/CD, use these flags:

Flag	Description
-o / --output	Output format: json, yaml, text, or interactive (default)
--confirm	Skip confirmation prompts

You can also set output format globally:

export RENDER_OUTPUT=json

Tips

• Run render with no arguments to see all available commands
• Run render help <command> for details on any command
• Service IDs are optional in interactive mode — the CLI will prompt you to select
• Use --wait on deploys create in CI to block until the deploy finishes (non-zero exit on failure)
• CLI tokens expire periodically — re-authenticate with render login if needed
• Config is stored at ~/.render/cli.yaml (override with RENDER_CLI_CONFIG_PATH)