CLI Reference
The Amba CLI for project initialization, status, and management.
The Amba CLI helps you initialize projects, check status, test push notifications, and manage remote config from your terminal.
Installation
Use directly with npx — no install required:
Or install it globally:
All examples below use the amba <command> form once the CLI is on your PATH. If you prefer npx, prefix every command with npx @layers/amba — the arguments are identical.
Commands
amba init
Initialize Amba in your current project. Walks you through:
- Creating an account or logging in
- Creating a new project
- Generating API keys
- Writing config to your project
amba login
Authenticate with your Amba account.
amba logout
Clear stored credentials.
amba claim <email>
Bind a sandbox account to a real email address via a one-click magic link. Sandbox accounts are minted with an auto-generated address (sandbox-<epoch>-<nonce>@layers.com) and capped at 100 MAU / 10 MB DB until claimed. Running amba claim <email> emails a single-use magic link to the address you pass in; clicking it updates developers.email AND flips the project tier from agent_sandbox to verified_free (1,000 MAU, 500 MB DB).
The CLI prints a single confirmation line and exits — the click in the email is the whole flow. No copy-paste tokens, no follow-up commands, no console UI. The link expires in 15 minutes.
Error responses surface as terse one-liners:
EMAIL_TAKEN— that address already owns another Amba account. Sign in withamba logininstead, or pick a different email.ALREADY_CLAIMED— this account is already verified. No claim needed.429— too many claim attempts; wait a minute and retry.
Agents without shell access can call the underlying POST /v1/auth/developer/claim endpoint directly with Authorization: Bearer <pat> and body { "email": "<target>" }.
amba status
Show project health and integration status. The default view covers
authentication, your local .env.local configuration, API key
validation, project metadata, and the presence of context files
(AMBA.md, Cursor rules).
Pass --detailed to add a per-project metrics block:
- Integration health (APNS, FCM, RevenueCat, Superwall)
- Total user count
- Active and total segment counts
- 24h event total + the top 5 event names by count
amba logs tail
Tail the project-wide engagement event log. By default the command fetches the most recent 100 events from the last 24 hours and prints them oldest-to-newest:
Each line is <timestamp> <event_name> user=<user_id> <properties>.
Useful flags:
--follow— keep the connection open and poll every 2 seconds for new events. Press Ctrl-C to stop cleanly.--json— emit raw NDJSON (one event per line) for piping intojq, Vector, or any downstream pipeline. Banner output is suppressed.--since <iso>— only show events on or after the given ISO 8601 timestamp (default: 24h ago).--event-name <name>— filter to a single event name.--user-id <id>— filter to events for a single app user.--limit <n>— events per page (default 100, max 1000).--project <id>— override the project id from.env.local.
amba push test
Send a test push notification to all registered devices for your project.
amba config list
List all remote config values for your project.
amba config set <key> <value>
Set a remote config value.
amba analytics export
Bulk-export users or events to CSV (default) or NDJSON. Both flows are backed by streaming admin endpoints, so you can dump millions of rows without buffering the result set in memory.
Flags:
--type=users|events— required. Switches between the two exporters.--since <iso>/--until <iso>— time window for events (defaults: last 24 hours). The users export honors--sinceagainstcreated_at.--format=csv|ndjson— output encoding. CSV is the default.--out <file>— write to disk instead of stdout. The command tees a progress counter to stderr so it stays usable when redirecting stdout.--limit <n>— per-page row limit when paginating events (default 1000). The command keeps walking cursors until the server reports no more rows.--project <id>— override the project id from.env.local.
amba functions dev <file>
Run a local development server for an Amba function with hot reload on file changes. The dev server reproduces the production request shape so you can iterate before deploying. See Functions → Local dev.
Flags:
--port <n>— port to listen on (default8787).--no-watch— disable file-change hot reload.
amba functions deploy <target>
Bundle a function and deploy it to your project's edge runtime. <target> is
either a single file or a directory — a directory resolves its entry
by convention (index.ts / index.js / index.mjs) or via --entry. See
Functions → Deploy.
Flags:
--name <name>— function name (default: the file name without extension, or the directory leaf name).--entry <file>— entry file when<target>is a directory (relative to it). Default:index.ts/js/mjs.--dry-run— bundle and report size without uploading.--public— deploy without theX-Api-Keygate so external webhook senders can call it. You must verify the webhook signature in your handler. Default: private.--rate-limit-window <60s|5m|1h>— per-function rate-limit window (all three rate-limit flags must be set together or all omitted).--rate-limit-max <int>— max requests per window.--rate-limit-key <user_id|ip>— bucket key for the rate limit.
amba functions list
List active functions for the current project.
amba functions delete <name>
Remove a function from your project's edge runtime.
amba functions schedule <name> <cron>
Register a cron schedule that invokes a deployed function.
Flags:
--tz <iana>— IANA timezone for the schedule (defaultUTC).
amba functions logs <name>
Stream log events for a deployed function.
Flags:
--since <iso>/--until <iso>— time range (default: last hour).--limit <n>— max events per fetch (default 100, max 1000).--tail(alias--follow) — keep streaming new events; polls every 3s. Ctrl-C to stop.--request-id <id>— only show events whose logs mention this request id (e.g.r_...); works with--tail.--since-request-id <id>— start the range at the oldest event mentioning this request id and show everything from there onward (searches the last 24h, or your--since/--untilwindow). Composes with--request-id(which filters) and--tail(which anchors the backfill, then streams).--json— emit NDJSON to stdout for piping intojq.
amba functions consume <queue-name> <function-name>
Bind a function as the consumer for a queue.
Flags:
--paused— create the binding paused (messages dead-letter until you resume).
amba functions consumers list
List queue bindings for the current project.
amba functions consumers unbind <queue-name>
Remove the binding for a queue.
Infrastructure as code
amba export / amba diff / amba apply manage your project's reusable
configuration declaratively — the entities you hand-build once and want to
stand up identically elsewhere (dev → prod): remote configs, collection
schemas, content libraries + items, currencies, achievements, streaks,
challenges, leaderboards, and XP rules. The bundle is configuration only —
no secrets, no per-user data — so it's safe to check into version control and
diff in a pull request. The default bundle file is amba.config.json (JSON
only).
amba export [file]
Write the current project's configuration bundle to disk.
amba diff [file]
Show what amba apply would change (created / updated / skipped per
section) without writing. Computed locally by exporting the current project and
comparing — there's no server-side dry-run.
amba apply [file]
Apply a bundle to the current project. Prints the server's authoritative
{ created, updated, skipped } per section.
--mode skip_existing (default) no-ops on any definition that already exists;
--mode merge refreshes existing definitions. Collections are always
create-if-absent (never merged in place). All three commands take
--project <id> to target a project other than the one in .env.local.
Authentication
The CLI stores credentials locally after amba login. All commands that require authentication use the stored credentials automatically.
Credentials are stored in ~/.amba/credentials.json.