ribo CLI Reference

ribo is the command-line tool for tissue.systems. The name comes from the ribosome — the molecular machine inside every living cell that reads genetic instructions and assembles proteins from them. In the same way, ribo reads your ribo.toml and assembles a running Cell from your code.

Complete reference for every ribo command.

ribo login

Authenticate with tissue.systems. Opens a browser for the OAuth flow, then stores a token locally.

ribo login

Token is saved at:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ribo/token.json
• Linux: ~/.config/ribo/token.json

Flags

# Standard browser login
ribo login

# Save a key directly (CI, scripts)
ribo login --key eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9...

ribo logout

Remove the stored token.

ribo logout

ribo deploy

Deploy a Cell from a ribo.toml configuration file. If a build command is defined, it runs first.

ribo deploy [--config <path>] [--server <url>]

Flags

Output

deployed  my-cell
address   ab1cd2
kind      js
url       https://word-ab1c.dev.tissue.systems
c3        DB→my-database
files     ASSETS→ab1cd2-assets (18 files)
pulse     0 * * * *

• url — the Cell's permanent public URL
• address — a short stable ID derived from your user ID and cell name; never changes between deploys
• c3 — c3 bindings (binding name → database name)
• files — FILES bindings (binding name → bucket name, file count)
• pulse — comma-separated cron schedules (only shown if [[pulse]] is declared)

Examples

ribo deploy
ribo deploy --config ./prod/ribo.toml
ribo deploy --server http://localhost:8082

ribo list

List all your deployed Cells.

ribo list [--server <url>]

ab1cd2  my-cell        3.1kb  2026-05-25T12:00:00  https://word-ab1c.dev.tissue.systems
ef5gh6  another-cell   1.2kb  2026-05-24T09:30:00  https://other-ef56.dev.tissue.systems

Columns: address, name, code size, last deployed, public URL.

ribo delete

Remove a deployed Cell permanently. The URL stops working immediately.

ribo delete <name-or-address> [--server <url>]

ribo delete my-cell
ribo delete ab1cd2

ribo addr

Print the stable address for a cell name without deploying. The address is deterministic — derived from your user ID and the cell name.

ribo addr <name>

ribo addr my-cell
# → ab1cd2

Useful for building URLs before deploying, or verifying which address a name maps to.

ribo db

Manage c3 SQLite databases. See c3 Overview for usage in Cells.

ribo db create

ribo db create <name> [--server <url>]

Create a new database. Names must be lowercase alphanumeric with hyphens.

ribo db create myapp
ribo db create analytics

ribo db list

ribo db list [--server <url>]

List all your databases.

myapp
analytics

ribo db drop

ribo db drop <name> [--server <url>]

Delete a database and all its data. Irreversible.

ribo db exec

ribo db exec <name> ["<sql>"] [--file <path>] [--server <url>]

Run a SQL statement or load a .sql file. Output is JSON for inline queries. Use --file for multi-statement migrations — it uses execute_batch internally, so it handles any number of statements efficiently in a single request.

Flags

ribo db exec myapp "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, email TEXT UNIQUE)"
ribo db exec myapp "INSERT INTO users (email) VALUES ('hello@example.com')"
ribo db exec myapp "SELECT * FROM users"
# → [{"id":1,"email":"hello@example.com"}]
ribo db exec myapp "SELECT COUNT(*) as total FROM users"
ribo db exec myapp "PRAGMA table_info(users)"

# Load a schema or seed file (any number of statements)
ribo db exec myapp --file schema.sql
ribo db exec myapp --file ./migrations/001_init.sql

ribo bucket

Manage g7 object storage buckets. See g7 Overview and Managing Buckets for details.

ribo bucket create

ribo bucket create <name> [--server <url>]

Create a new bucket. Names must be lowercase alphanumeric with hyphens. Idempotent — creating an existing bucket is not an error.

ribo bucket create avatars
ribo bucket create raw-uploads

ribo bucket list

ribo bucket list [--server <url>]

List all your buckets.

avatars
raw-uploads
processed-images

ribo bucket ls

ribo bucket ls <name> [--server <url>]

List the objects (files) stored in a bucket.

ribo bucket ls my-files

images/avatar.png     42318
images/banner.jpg     198432
reports/2026-05.pdf   81920

Columns: key, size in bytes.

ribo bucket drop

ribo bucket drop <name> [--server <url>]

Delete a bucket and all its objects. Irreversible.

ribo bucket drop old-uploads

Global behaviour

Default server: All commands default to https://api.dev.tissue.systems. Override with --server for local development.

Authentication: ribo deploy, ribo list, ribo delete, ribo db *, and ribo bucket * require a valid token. Run ribo login first.

Cell addresses: An address is base36(sha256(userId + ":" + name)[0..4]), zero-padded to 5 or 6 characters. The same name always maps to the same address for a given user.

Slugs: Each Cell gets a human-readable public slug (e.g. crane-a4f2) on first deploy. The slug is stable across redeploys. The public URL is https://<slug>.dev.tissue.systems.

See also

• ribo.toml Reference
• c3 Overview
• g7 Overview