porter app

porter app contains commands for managing and interacting with your applications.

Prerequisites

• You’ve logged in to the Porter CLI after running porter auth login
• You’re connected to the correct project by running porter config set-project
• You’re connected to the correct cluster by running porter config set-cluster

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porter app run

Execute a command in your application’s container. By default, this spins up an ephemeral copy of your container that is deleted when the command completes.

Usage:

porter app run [APP_NAME] [flags] -- [COMMAND] [args...]

Options:

Flag	Short	Description
--existing	-e	Connect to an existing running container instead of spinning up a new one
--job		Trigger a manual run of the specified job
--wait		Wait for the job to complete before exiting (used with --job)
--allow-concurrent		Allow concurrent runs for jobs that normally restrict it
--service		Specify which service to connect to

Interactive Shell

porter app run my-app -- bash

If bash isn’t available in your container, try sh for a similar interactive experience.

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porter app logs

Stream real-time logs or view historical logs from your application.

Usage:

porter app logs [APP_NAME] [flags]

Options:

Flag	Description
--service	Filter logs by service name
--search	Search for a specific string in the logs
--revision	Stream logs from a specific revision

Historical Log Options:

Flag	Description
--since	Pull logs from the specified duration (e.g., 12h, 30m)
--from	Start timestamp for historical logs (RFC3339 format)
--to	End timestamp for historical logs (RFC3339 format)
--limit	Number of lines to return (default: 100)
--newest-first	Return newest logs first (default: true)

Stream Live Logs

porter app logs my-app

By default, the command streams new logs. Setting --since or --from/--to switches to pulling historical logs.

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porter app build

Build a new container image for an app based on its existing build settings. Any build setting can be overridden with flags.

Usage:

porter app build [APP_NAME] [flags]

Options:

Flag	Description
--build-context	Override the build context directory
--dockerfile	Override the Dockerfile path
--tag	Specify a custom image tag
--method	Build method (docker or pack)
--builder	Builder image for buildpack builds
--buildpacks	Comma-separated list of buildpacks

Basic Build

porter app build my-app

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porter app push

Push a container image to the default registry for the app. Can be used with porter app build to build and push as discrete steps.

Usage:

porter app push [APP_NAME] [flags]

Options:

Flag	Description
--tag	Specify the image tag to push (defaults to current branch HEAD)

Push Latest

porter app push my-app

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porter app update

Update an application with the provided configuration without building a new image. This is similar to updating the app in the Porter dashboard.

Usage:

porter app update [APP_NAME] [flags]

Options:

Flag	Short	Description
--file	-f	Path to the porter.yaml configuration file
--tag		Update the image tag

Update from YAML

porter app update my-app -f porter.yaml

This command differs from porter apply in that it only updates the app configuration without attempting to build a new image.

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porter app update-tag

Update the image tag for an application. This is functionally equivalent to running porter apply or porter app update with the --tag flag.

Usage:

porter app update-tag [APP_NAME] [flags]

Options:

Flag	Description
--tag	The new image tag to deploy (required)

porter app update-tag my-app --tag abc123def

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porter app yaml

Export the current Porter YAML configuration for an application. Useful for bootstrapping a porter.yaml file or inspecting the current configuration.

Usage:

porter app yaml [APP_NAME]

porter app yaml my-app

Redirect the output to create a porter.yaml file: porter app yaml my-app > porter.yaml

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porter app list

List all applications in the current project and cluster.

Usage:

porter app list

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Related Commands

• porter apply - Deploy an app using configuration-as-code
• porter job - Manage jobs
• porter env - Manage environment variables