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edgedb instance create

Initialize a new EdgeDB instance.

edgedb instance create [options] name

edgedb instance create is a terminal command for making a new EdgeDB instance and creating a corresponding credentials file in <edgedb_config_dir>/credentials. Run edgedb info to see the path to <edgedb_config_dir> on your machine.

Creating a Cloud instance requires CLI version 3.0 or later.

Users with access to the EdgeDB Cloud beta may use this command to create a Cloud instance after logging in using edgedb cloud login.

To create a Cloud instance, your instance name should be in the format <github-username>/<instance-name>. Cloud instance names may contain alphanumeric characters and hyphens (i.e., -).

Please be aware of the following restrictions on EdgeDB Cloud instance names:

  • can contain only Latin alpha-numeric characters or -

  • cannot start with a dash (-) or contain double dashes (--)

  • maximum instance name length is 61 characters minus the length of your GitHub username (i.e., length of GitHub username + length of instance name must be fewer than 62 characters)

name

The new EdgeDB instance name.

--nightly

Use the nightly server for this instance.

--default-database=default-database

Specifies the default database name (created during initialization, and saved in credentials file). Defaults to edgedb.

--default-user=default-user

Specifies the default user name (created during initialization, and saved in credentials file). Defaults to: edgedb.

--port=port

Specifies which port should the instance be configured on. By default a random port will be used and recorded in the credentials file.

--start-conf=start-conf

Configures how the new instance should start: auto for automatic start with the system or user session, manual to turn that off so that the instance can be manually started with edgedb instance start on demand. Defaults to: auto.

--version=version

Specifies the version of the EdgeDB server to be used to run the new instance. To list the currently available options use edgedb server list-versions.

By default, when you specify a version, the CLI will use the latest release in the major version specified. This command, for example, will install the latest 2.x release:

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$ 
edgedb instance create --version 2.6 demo26

You may pin to a specific version by prepending the version number with an equals sign. This command will install version 2.6:

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$ 
edgedb instance create --version =2.6 demo26

Some shells like ZSH may require you to escape the equals sign (e.g., \=2.6) or quote the version string (e.g., "=2.6").

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