Getting Started

Cella runs persistent, per-user compute environments at cella.latere.ai. This page gets you from zero to a running sandbox in under a minute.

1. Install the CLI

curl -fsSL https://latere.ai/install.sh | sh

The installer drops a latere binary into ~/.local/bin. Add that to your PATH if it isn't already.

2. Log in

latere auth login

latere auth login runs the OAuth2 device-code flow: it prints a short code and a URL, you approve in any browser, and the CLI polls until approval lands. The token is written to ~/.config/latere/token.json with 0600 permissions. For CI / unattended use, latere auth login --token <jwt> skips the device flow.

latere auth whoami
# sub:           usr_01J...
# email:         you@example.com
# principal:     user
# scopes:        read:sandbox write:sandbox exec:sandbox

3. Create your first sandbox

latere cella create --image ghcr.io/latere-ai/sandbox-base:main --tier persistent

Without --tier, the sandbox is ephemeral — auto-stops on idle and auto-deletes after 24h. persistent stays until you delete it.

latere cella list
# NAME              ID                 STATE     TIER         DISK   CREATED
# fragrant-bird-7x2 sb-01J6...         running   persistent   5Gi    8s

4. Run something

latere exec fragrant-bird-7x2 -- bash -lc 'echo hello && uname -a'

exec waits for the command to finish and propagates its exit code. For long jobs, use latere cella run (returns immediately) plus latere cella logs --follow.

5. Move files in and out

# Pull a directory out as a tarball
latere cella export fragrant-bird-7x2 ./build -o build.tar

# Push a tarball in
tar -cf - ./src | latere cella import fragrant-bird-7x2 --dest /workspace

What's next