Open an interactive shell on a Fly Machine with fly ssh console
domain: fly.io · 6 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Ensure you are authenticated (fly auth login) so flyctl can establish the WireGuard connection and issue a cert.
Run `fly ssh console` from the app directory (or `-a <app>`). It connects to a running instance of the current app; add `-s/--select` to choose among instances.
Pass a non-interactive command with `-C/--command '<cmd>'` (e.g. `fly ssh console -C 'ls /data'`) — useful for one-shot checks.
Connect to a specific Machine with `--machine <id>`, specify a user with `-u/--user` (default root), and select a process group with `-g/--group`.
The Fly SSH server runs on all default VMs with no app configuration required — but the image must be a working base system (e.g. alpine/busybox/ubuntu), not a bare scratch FROM scratch image.
Official docs: https://fly.io/docs/flyctl/ssh-console/ and https://fly.io/docs/flyctl/ssh/
Known gotchas
Scratch-based images (no /etc/passwd, no shell) fail SSH with 'root does not exist' / auth errors — switch to a functional base image.
`fly ssh console` connects to an existing running instance; use `fly console` (different command) to spawn a temporary throwaway Machine from the app image instead.
Use `--command` for non-interactive runs; interactive shells need a TTY which is allocated by default when no --command is given.
The first SSH connection sets up WireGuard and issues a cert — it can be slower/may prompt progress indicators (suppress with -q).
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