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Command line & SDKs/CLI Reference

Neon CLI commands — set-context

Use the Neon CLI to manage Neon directly from the terminal

Before you begin

  • Before running the set-context command, ensure that you have installed the Neon CLI.
  • If you have not authenticated with the neonctl auth command, running a Neon CLI command automatically launches the Neon CLI browser authentication process. Alternatively, you can specify a Neon API key using the --api-key option when running a command. See Connect.

The set-context command

This command sets a background context for your CLI sessions, letting you perform project or branch-specific actions without having to specify the project or branch id in every command. Using the context-file parameter, you can save the context to a file of your choice. If you don't specify a file, a default .neon file is saved to the current directory. You can switch contexts by providing different files.

The context remains in place until you reset to a new context or remove the context-file.

Usage

set-context (hidden file)

neonctl set-context [option]

set-context to context-file

neonctl set-context [option] --context-file <your_context_file>

set-context during project creation

You can also set context for a new project during project creation.

neonctl projects create --name <project_name> --set-context <your_context_file>

Options

The set-context command requires you set at least one of these options:

OptionDescriptionTypeRequired
--project-idProject IDstringSets the identified project as the context until you reset or remove context-file
--branchBranch ID or namestringSets the identified branch as the context until you reset or remove context-file
--context-filepath and file namestringCreates a file that holds project-id and branch context

Global options are also supported.

Examples of setting and using a context

Here are some examples of setting contexts to specific projects, then using them in an example command.

Using the default file

Set the context to the default .neon file:

neonctl set-context --project-id patient-frost-50125040

List all branches for this project using branches list. You do not need to include --project-id even though multiple projects exist for this account:

neonctl branches list

The results show details for all branches in the patient-frost-50125040 project:

┌──────────────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
 Id Name Primary Created At Updated At
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
 br-raspy-meadow-26349337 development false 2023-11-28T19:19:11Z 2023-12-01T00:18:21Z
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
 br-curly-bar-82389180 main true 2023-10-23T12:49:41Z 2023-12-01T00:18:21Z
└──────────────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

Using a named context-file

Set the context to the context-file of your choice:

neonctl set-context --project-id plain-waterfall-84865553 --context-file Documents/MyContext

List all branches using the branches list command. No need to specify the project since the context file provides it.

neonctl branches list --context-file Documents/MyContext

The results show details for all branches in the plain-waterfall-84865553 project:

┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
 Id Name Primary Created At Updated At
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
 br-soft-base-86343042 development false 2023-11-21T18:41:47Z 2023-12-01T00:00:14Z
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
 br-young-bush-89857627 main true 2023-11-21T18:00:10Z 2023-12-01T03:33:53Z
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
 br-billowing-union-41102466 staging false 2023-11-21T18:44:22Z 2023-12-01T08:32:40Z
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────

note

These two branches list commands demonstrate the use of different contexts in the same account. The default .neon context is set to patient-frost-50125040 while the named context-file is set to plain-waterfall-84865553. These contexts operate independently. You can set as many context-files as you'd like, using unique names or in different directories, depending on your needs.

Setting context when creating a new project

Let's say you want to create a new project called MyLatest. You can automatically set the project ID and default branch ID context at the same time as you create the project.

neonctl projects create --name MyLatest --set-context

This creates a hidden file with the following context details:

{
  "projectId": "quiet-water-76237589",
  "branchId": "br-still-wind-46531853"
}

You can now use any command that would normally require an additional --project-id or branch parameter and the command will default to this context.

note

Neon does not save any confidential information to the context file (for example, auth tokens). You can safely commit this file to your repository or share with others.

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