CLI reference

Every pols command with its usage, examples and flags, generated from the CLI's own help.

These pages are generated from the --help output of the pols CLI, so they always match the version recorded in the docs repository. Run pols <command> --help for the same text in your terminal.

pols manages pols.so sandboxes: full Ubuntu 24.04 VMs with root, systemd and
Docker, hosted in Germany.

Authenticate with `pols login` or the POLS_API_KEY environment variable.
Sandboxes are named by ID (sbx_...) or by name. Every command takes --json
for machine-readable output.

Commands

Command	Description
`pols browser`	Control a sandbox’s Chrome over the Chrome DevTools Protocol
`pols computer`	Use a sandbox’s desktop: screenshots, mouse and keyboard
`pols cp`	Copy a file between this machine and a sandbox
`pols desktop`	Print a link to the sandbox’s desktop in the browser
`pols exec`	Run a command in a sandbox, streaming its output
`pols fork`	Fork a sandbox into a new running sandbox with a copy of its disk
`pols get`	Show one sandbox
`pols host`	Publish a sandbox port over HTTPS, or list published ports
`pols login`	Store an API key (read from stdin, or POLS_API_KEY)
`pols logout`	Forget the stored API key
`pols ls`	List sandboxes
`pols mcp`	Serve the pols tools to an AI agent over MCP (stdio)
`pols new`	Create a sandbox and wait until it runs
`pols org`	Show your org, its quotas and what it uses
`pols resume`	Resume a stopped sandbox
`pols rm`	Delete a sandbox and its disk
`pols skill`	Install the pols agent skill, so agents know the CLI without reading `--help`
`pols ssh`	Open an SSH session in a sandbox through the SSH gateway
`pols ssh-key`	Manage the SSH public keys that open your org’s sandboxes
`pols stats`	Show the CPU, memory and disk use of a sandbox, or of all running sandboxes
`pols stop`	Stop a sandbox (disk is kept; stopped time is free)
`pols template`	Save sandboxes as templates and manage them
`pols usage`	Show per-second usage (default: this month)
`pols vault`	See your org’s vault of passwords and environment variables for sandboxes
`pols version`	Print the version

Global flags

Every command accepts these:

    --api-url pols login   API URL (env POLS_API_URL; default from pols login, else https://api.pols.so)
-h, --help                 help for pols
    --json                 print machine-readable JSON