Terminal UI

onctl tui is your VM list as a live, full-screen view laid out like k9s: a header with the provider, VM counts and the current view's hotkeys, one table, and a crumbs line. It refreshes every 15 seconds, and every action in it runs the matching onctl command.

onctl tui                # the current provider (ONCTL_CLOUD, or -p); without one, pick from the providers list
onctl tui -p hetzner
onctl                    # the same as onctl tui; onctl --help for the commands

The screenshots on this page are the real view rendered against sample Hetzner data, so the keys, columns and colours are what the command draws.

Moving around

j/k or the arrows move the cursor, g/G jump to the top and bottom, ctrl-f/ctrl-b page. shift + a column's letter sorts by that column, and again the other way. esc goes back a page; ctrl-c or :q quits.

? lists every key for the view you're in:

Filtering

/ opens a filter prompt; the rows narrow as you type, and esc clears it. In the VMs view, 0, 1 and 2 show all VMs, the running ones or the paused ones (the two sections of onctl ls).

Working on a VM

With the cursor on a VM:

s	open a terminal on it (onctl ssh)
a	run Claude Code on it (onctl claude --box <vm>, see Claude Code on a box)
d or enter	describe it; y for its JSON
c	create a VM: a form asks name, image and type, then runs onctl create
p / r	pause / resume (onctl pause, onctl resume)
ctrl-d	destroy it (onctl destroy), after asking

Destroy asks first:

Views

: opens a command prompt, with tab completion (:pro becomes :providers). :vms, :images, :sizes and :repos switch view; :vms web switches and filters in one go.

• :images lists the provider's OS images, the ones --image takes. c on a row creates a VM from it.
• :sizes lists the sizes --type takes, with vCPUs, memory, disk and, where the provider publishes them, prices. c on a row creates a VM of that size.

• :repos lists the GitHub repositories gh's account can reach, newest push first. enter on one runs onctl claude --repo owner/name: a box on this provider with the repository cloned and Claude Code attached. It asks which box first: n, a new one (<name>-<word>-<word>-<id>), so two pieces of work on a repository never share a box, kept when Claude exits for :vms to pause or destroy; or r, the repository's own box, claude-<name>, which later enters come back to.

• :provider lists the clouds onctl knows, the current one marked; enter switches the tui to that one. :provider hetzner switches directly. On a machine with no .onctl directory yet it first offers to run onctl init (not for boxes, which needs no config).
• :create, :ssh <vm> and :claude [vm] are the key actions as commands.
• R refreshes now. VMs refresh on their own every 15 seconds; images, sizes and repos are listed when their view opens and on R.

Every key

:vms :images :sizes :repos   switch view (also :q, :help, :create)
:provider [name]      switch cloud provider (a list to pick from without a name)
:claude [vm]          run Claude Code on a VM (onctl claude --box vm; the project's box without one)
/text        filter the rows; esc clears
j/k, arrows  move; g/G top/bottom; shift+letter sorts by that column
enter, d     describe the VM; y its JSON
s            open a terminal on the VM (onctl ssh)
a            run Claude Code on the VM (onctl claude --box vm)
enter        in :repos (your GitHub repos, newest push first, from gh), start Claude
             on a box of this provider with the repo cloned (onctl claude --repo)
c            create a VM (name, image and type are asked; runs onctl create)
p / r        pause / resume
ctrl-d       destroy the VM (asks first)
0 / 1 / 2    all VMs / running only / paused only
esc          back; ctrl-c or :q quits