Authentication Commands

Description

The auth commands manage the saved CLI session used by Hostess commands.

Commands

Login

hostess login

hostess login creates a one-time browser link, waits for approval in Studio, then stores a token in ~/.hostess/config.json.

Opening your browser to sign in to Hostess...

If your browser did not open, visit:
https://hostess.sh/cli/login/abc123

Waiting for browser login...
Signed in as you@example.com

Use --no-browser to print the link without opening a browser. Use --force to start a new login when a valid session already exists.

Logout

hostess logout

Use hostess logout to clear the saved CLI session on the current machine.

Current User

hostess whoami

hostess whoami prints a full summary of the active session: your name, email, username, whether your email is verified, current organization, linked accounts (e.g. GitHub), GitHub app installs, last login, and when the account was created. Fields are only shown when there's data for them — a fresh account without a linked GitHub account simply omits that line.

Signed in

Name:             First Last
Email:            user@example.com
Username:         username
Email verified:   yes
Current org:      org-slug
Linked accounts:  github: octocat
GitHub installs:  example-org, howl-cloud
Last login:       2026-07-06 09:15 PDT
Account created:  2025-12-01

CI Authentication

For scripts and CI/CD, prefer HOSTESS_TOKEN or a command-specific --token flag where the command provides one:

export HOSTESS_TOKEN="pat_abc123..."
hostess deploy --env production --no-interactive