Workflows

Common inputs

incus-apply accepts local files, directories, standard input, and remote URLs.

# Apply all configs in the current directory
incus-apply .

# Apply specific files
incus-apply instance.yaml network.yaml

# Apply recursively from a directory
incus-apply ./configs/ -r

# Apply from stdin
cat instance.yaml | incus-apply -

# Apply from URL
incus-apply https://example.com/instance.yaml

Preview and confirm changes

By default, incus-apply previews the changes and asks for confirmation.

# Show diff only without applying
incus-apply . --diff

# Show machine-readable diff output
incus-apply . --diff=json

For instance resources, config.environment.* values are redacted in preview output by default. Use --show-env when you need to inspect the actual values in the preview.

If planning detects errors, the preview is still shown, but apply or delete stops before making changes.

Preview output identifies resources by effective scope:

  • Most resources use type/name, for example instance/web.

  • Pool-scoped storage resources use project:type/pool/name, for example default:storage-volume/pool1/data.

  • Global resources omit the project prefix and use type/name.

Non-interactive runs

Use these options in automation or CI:

# Auto-accept changes
incus-apply . -y

# Non-interactive with quiet output
incus-apply . -yq

Remote and project targeting

Apply everything to a specific project:

incus-apply . --project myproject

Apply everything to a remote server by appending the remote name with a trailing colon:

incus-apply instance.yaml server-a:

For per-resource remote overrides, prefix the resource name:

kind: instance
name: server-a:ubuntu
image: images:ubuntu/24.04

Delete, replace, and reset

# Delete resources described in the configuration
incus-apply . -d -y

# Recreate resources when create-only fields change
incus-apply . --replace

# Delete then recreate everything from scratch
incus-apply . --reset

--reset is mutually exclusive with --delete and --diff.

Some fields are create-only, such as an instance image, storage pool driver, or network type. When one of those fields changes on a managed resource, the preview is marked recreate required and apply stops before making changes. Use --replace to delete and recreate the resource in one run.

Interactive resource selection

Use --select to choose a subset of resources before the diff is computed. Navigate with ↑ and ↓ or j and k, toggle items with space, toggle all with a, confirm with enter, and cancel with q.

Dependency ordering

Resources are created in dependency order. The default order is:

  1. Projects

  2. Storage pools

  3. Networks

  4. Network forwards

  5. Network ACLs

  6. Network zones

  7. Storage volumes

  8. Storage buckets

  9. Storage bucket keys

  10. Cluster groups

  11. Profiles

  12. Instances

For deletion, the order is reversed.