Run a one-off or long-lived Fly Machine with fly machine run
domain: fly.io · 7 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Install/auth flyctl, then `fly machine run <image> [command] [flags]` — <image> can be a registry image or `.` to build from the local Dockerfile.
By default it creates a new app if none is given (or reuses the app named in a fly.toml / --app). Set VM resources with --vm-cpus/--vm-memory/--vm-size, region with -r, and env with -e NAME=VAL.
For an interactive throwaway shell: `fly machine run . --shell` (implies --rm; the Machine is deleted on exit).
For a persistent job machine, keep the default restart policy 'always' (or set --restart no|on-failure|always); add --rm to auto-remove the Machine when it exits.
Attach storage with `fly volume create --size 10 data --region <r>` then `fly machine run . --volume data:/data --region <r>` (only one volume per Machine, and each volume attaches to at most one Machine).
Expose it via Fly Proxy with --port (e.g. --port 80:8080/tcp:http) and control autostop/autostart with --autostop/--autostart.
Official docs: https://fly.io/docs/machines/flyctl/fly-machine-run/ and https://fly.io/docs/flyctl/machine-run/
Known gotchas
Default restart policy differs: 'always' for `fly machine run`, but 'on-failure' for Machines created by `fly deploy` and scheduled machines.
Machines created via `fly machine run` are, by default, ignored by Fly Launch commands (fly deploy, fly status, fly scale) unless you set --metadata fly_process_group=app.
--autostop flag sets autostop=true; --autostart=false disables proxy auto-start. Leaving these unset means the Fly Proxy won't start/stop the Machine for you.
--latest/-l family flags and pod-id-style shortcuts are NOT available on remote (non-Linux) clients.
Scheduled machines (--schedule hourly/daily/weekly/monthly) start only on their schedule, not on demand.
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