Quick start

Get started with Alternate Clouds in minutes. This guide walks you through installing the CLI, authenticating, and deploying your first service to decentralized compute.

What You'll Learn

By the end of this guide, you'll have:

Installed the acc CLI
Authenticated with the platform
Deployed your first service (a container) to decentralized infrastructure
Checked its logs and URL

Time to complete: 5-10 minutes

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

An Alternate Clouds account - Sign up here
- Sign in with email or an Ethereum wallet; your account is created on first successful verification.
- New accounts start a 14-day trial - free, no credit card required.
Node.js 18.18.2 or later - Download here if you don't have it
- Check your version with node --version

Step 1: Install the CLI

npm install -g @alternatefutures/acc
acc --version

Step 2: Log in

acc login

This opens the browser so you can approve the CLI session. On a headless machine use acc login --email instead.

Verify:

acc whoami

Step 3: Create a project

Services live inside projects.

acc projects create --name hello-clouds
acc projects list

Step 4: Deploy your first service

The fastest first deploy is a plain container:

acc services create --kind docker --image nginx:latest --port 80 --name hello-web -y

Or start from the template catalog (AI agents, databases, and more):

acc templates list
acc services create --kind template --template <template-id> -y

Want verifiable confidential compute? Add --confidential to deploy on a TEE.

Step 5: Watch it come up

acc services list          # status and URL
acc services info          # full details for a service
acc services logs --tail 100

Once the service is running, acc services list shows its public URL (https://<slug>-app.alternatefutures.ai).

Step 6: Manage it

acc services deploy        # redeploy after changes
acc services env set <service> KEY VALUE
acc ssh <serviceId>        # shell into the running container
acc services close         # stop billing for it

Where to go next

CLI command reference - every command and flag
Projects - organize services and teams
Billing - credits, topups, and budgets
Authentication - all sign-in methods

For AI agents

Automating this? Use acc pat create for a token, export AF_TOKEN and AF_PROJECT_ID, and every command above works non-interactively (add -y). Machine-readable docs: /llms.txt.

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