abc CLI

abc is the command-line interface for the African Bioinformatics Computing Cluster. It covers the full workflow: configure contexts, protect credentials, move data, submit jobs, and manage the cluster fabric.

What's here

Section	What you'll find
Quick start	First commands in under five minutes
Tutorials	Hands-on walkthrough of every major feature
Reference	Every command, flag, and environment variable

The three-sentence version

Set an active context (abc context add or paste a per-user ~/.abc/config.yaml from your workspace lead) that points abc at your cluster endpoint and tokens. Researchers use abc data upload/download, abc job run, and abc pipeline run. Operators use abc admin services … to proxy into Nomad, Vault, Consul, and Tailscale CLIs without manual token wrangling.

Install

abc ships as a single static binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows (amd64 + arm64).

One-liner install (recommended)

System-wide — installs to /usr/local/bin/abc:

curl -fsSL -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.raw+json" \
    "https://api.github.com/repos/abc-cluster/abc-cluster-cli/contents/scripts/install-abc.sh?ref=main" \
  | sh -s -- --sudo

User-local — installs to ~/bin/abc (no sudo):

curl -fsSL -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.raw+json" \
    "https://api.github.com/repos/abc-cluster/abc-cluster-cli/contents/scripts/install-abc.sh?ref=main" \
  | sh -s --

Pin a specific release:

# Replace v1.2.3 with the version you want
curl -fsSL ... | sh -s -- --version v1.2.3

After install, verify:

abc --version

Updating

Once abc is installed, upgrade in place — no need to re-run the install script:

abc self-update            # upgrade to the latest release
abc self-update --check    # report current vs latest, download nothing
abc self-update --version v1.2.3   # install a specific tag (up- or downgrade)
abc self-update --yes      # skip the confirmation prompt

self-update detects your platform, downloads the matching release binary, and swaps the running abc atomically. If abc lives in a root-owned directory (e.g. /usr/local/bin), the final move is retried with sudo when you run it interactively, or it prints the exact sudo mv command for you to run.

When a newer version exists, abc prints a one-line reminder on stderr:

[abc] update available: v1.2.4 (current v1.2.3)
[abc] upgrade with:  abc self-update

Silence that check with export ABC_CLI_DISABLE_UPDATE_CHECK=1.

On Windows, a running .exe can't replace itself; abc self-update prints the download URL to overwrite manually.

Other methods

go install

go install github.com/abc-cluster/abc-cluster-cli@latest

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/abc-cluster/abc-cluster-cli
cd abc-cluster-cli
go build -o abc .

Shell completion

# bash
abc completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/abc

# zsh
abc completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_abc"

# fish
abc completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/abc.fish

Once abc is on your $PATH, head to the Quick start for the first-run flow.