CLI

The Static Studio CLI lets you manage your sites from your terminal instead of clicking through the dashboard - and, just as importantly, it lets an AI assistant like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor manage them for you.

It's a small, predictable command-line tool that covers the everyday Studio tasks: creating sites, pushing changes, setting up domains and redirects, running backups, inviting users, checking performance, and reading logs. Because every command is simple and scriptable, it's a natural fit for handing repetitive work off to an AI agent.

This article walks through installing it, signing in, using it with AI, and the everyday commands you'll reach for most.

Before you start

You'll need:

• Node.js 20 or newer installed on your computer.
• A Static Studio account (the same one you use for the dashboard).

Install

Install the CLI globally with npm:

npm install -g @simply-static/static-studio

Then check it's working:

static-studio --help

You can type either static-studio   or the shorter sss   - they're the same tool. We'll use the full name throughout this article.

Sign in

Most people sign in with their email. The CLI sends you a one-time code and stores the session securely on your computer:

static-studio login --email you@example.com

Once you're signed in, you can confirm who you are at any time:

static-studio whoami

Your session is saved to ~/.static-studio/config.json   on your own machine, so you only sign in once. To sign out:

static-studio logout

Signing in for AI agents and automation

If you want an AI assistant or an automated script to use the CLI, signing in with your email isn't ideal - there's no inbox to check for a one-time code. Instead, you can create a Personal Access Token: one permanent token you can hand to a coding agent, a CI pipeline, or anything else that runs unattended.

Create your access token

Open the Account menu in the top bar of your dashboard and choose Account:

Then switch to the Access Token tab. Click Copy to grab your token, then store it somewhere safe:

A couple of important things to know:

• The full token is shown only once. If you lose it or need a fresh copy, click Regenerate Token - this creates a new token and immediately invalidates the old one.
• Keep it private. The token acts on behalf of your account, so treat it like a password and regenerate it right away if it's ever exposed.
• Personal Access Tokens require an active paid subscription. On a trial you'll see the option in the app, but you won't be able to issue a token yet.

Use your token

The recommended approach is to put your token in an environment variable called STATIC_STUDIO_ACCESS_TOKEN  , then sign in with it once:

static-studio login --token "$STATIC_STUDIO_ACCESS_TOKEN"

Alternatively, you can skip the saved login entirely and provide the token inline with any command — handy for one-off scripts or CI steps:

STATIC_STUDIO_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token static-studio --json sites list

This is the recommended setup for coding agents, CI pipelines, and anything running unattended.

Using the CLI with AI

This is where the CLI really shines. It was built so that AI coding assistants - Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and similar tools - can manage your Static Studio sites by running commands on your behalf. Instead of describing what you want and then doing it yourself, you can simply ask your assistant and let it do the work.

Why does it work well with AI

• Every command does one clear thing. There's no guesswork, so an assistant can reliably chain commands together.
• It speaks JSON. Add --json   to any command and the output becomes clean, machine-readable data that an assistant can read and act on:

  static-studio --json sites list

• It's safe by default. Commands that delete or disable something always ask for confirmation first (more on that below), so an assistant won't accidentally remove a site without a clear instruction.

Getting set up

1. Install the CLI globally (see above) so your assistant can find it.
2. Create a Personal Access Token and set it as STATIC_STUDIO_ACCESS_TOKEN   so your assistant can authenticate (see Signing in for AI agents and automation above).
3. Tell your assistant the tool is available - for example: "You can manage my Static Studio sites using the static-studio  CLI. Use --json  so you can read the results."

Things you can ask your assistant to do

Once it's set up, you can give your assistant plain-English instructions like:

• "List all my Static Studio sites and tell me which ones have pending changes."
• "Create a new site called 'Client Demo' and push the full site."
• "Add the domain example.com to my site and make it the primary domain."
• "Pull the last 200 error log lines for my site so we can debug this."
• "Run a performance test on my site and summarize the results."
• "Set up these 50 redirects from the spreadsheet I gave you."

Your assistant translates each request into the right CLI commands, runs them, reads the results, and reports back. You stay in control, and the assistant handles the busywork.

A note on safety: Destructive actions (like deleting a site) normally pause and ask for confirmation. An assistant can only skip that prompt if it adds the --yes   flag, so it's worth being explicit in your instructions about what you do and don't want removed.

Everyday commands

You don't need to memorize these - your AI assistant can look them up - but here are the tasks you'll reach for most. Throughout, <siteId>   means the ID of the site you're working with, which you can find with sites list  .

See your sites

static-studio sites list static-studio sites list --search demo static-studio sites get <siteId>

sites list   shows each site's ID, name, URL, status, and creation date. Use --search   to filter by name or URL.

Create a site

Create a quick site with a generated name and address:

static-studio sites create --name "Demo"

Or specify the details yourself:

static-studio sites create --name "Demo" --subdomain demo123 --php-version 8.3

You can also create a site from a migration archive (for example, a backup exported from another site):

static-studio sites create --name "Imported Site" --migration-file ./studio-backup-imported-site.zip

A few things to know about migration files: accepted formats are .zip  , .tar.gz  , and .tgz  , the maximum size is 10 GB, and ZIP filenames should include studio-backup-   in the name.

When a site is created, the CLI shows you the new site's details along with the generated WordPress and Basic Auth login credentials.

Push your site

Pushing publishes your WordPress content to your static site. You can push everything, or just what's changed:

static-studio sites push <siteId> full static-studio sites push <siteId> changes

Use full   to re-export the entire site, or changes   to push only recent updates. You can also clear the CDN cache or check how many changes are pending:

static-studio sites changes <siteId> static-studio sites clear-cache <siteId>

Quick site access

Get a temporary one-click login link to the WordPress admin, or view the site's Basic Auth credentials:

static-studio sites magic-login <siteId> static-studio sites basic-auth <siteId>

Custom domains

static-studio domains list <siteId> static-studio domains add <siteId> example.com static-studio domains primary <siteId> example.com static-studio domains issue-ssl example.com static-studio domains remove <siteId> old.example.com

Adding a domain or changing the primary domain automatically starts a fresh export so your site is served on the new address.

Redirects

Create a single redirect from an old path to a new one:

static-studio redirects create <siteId> /old-page /new-page

List, edit, or toggle existing redirects:

static-studio redirects list <siteId> static-studio redirects update <siteId> <redirectId> --from-path /old-page --to-path /new-page static-studio redirects disable <siteId> <redirectId> static-studio redirects enable <siteId> <redirectId>

Have a lot of redirects? Add them all at once from a JSON file:

static-studio redirects bulk-create <siteId> redirects.json

The file is a simple list of fromPath   and toPath   pairs (up to 1,000 of them):

[   { "fromPath": "/old-page", "toPath": "/new-page" },   { "fromPath": "/docs", "toPath": "https://example.com/docs" } ]

This is a great task to hand to an AI assistant - give it your old and new URLs in any format and ask it to build the file and run the import.

Backups

static-studio backups list <siteId> --refresh static-studio backups create <siteId> static-studio backups restore <siteId> --backup-id <backupId>

You can restore (or delete) a backup either by its ID or by date with --date 2026-06-14  .

Users and team members

Invite someone to a specific site, or add an existing Studio user:

static-studio users list <siteId> static-studio users invite <siteId> person@example.com --role administrator static-studio users add <siteId> existing@example.com --role editor static-studio users remove <siteId> person@example.com

Roles can be administrator  , editor  , author  , contributor  , or subscriber  .

To manage your wider account team - for example, giving a teammate access across your sites:

static-studio team list static-studio team invite person@example.com teammate@example.com --role editor --invite-missing static-studio team bulk-invite emails.txt --role editor --invite-missing

--invite-missing   also sends invitations to people who don't yet have a Static Studio account.

Performance

Run a PageSpeed and global response-time test, or pull CDN statistics:

static-studio performance run <siteId> static-studio performance stats <siteId> static-studio performance get <siteId> static-studio performance reports <siteId> --limit 20

performance get   runs the test and fetches CDN stats together — handy for asking an assistant to test a site and summarize the results in one go.

Logs and debugging

Pull your site's WordPress debug log straight into your terminal:

static-studio logs get <siteId> --tail 200 --level error static-studio logs get <siteId> --search "fatal error" --newest-first static-studio logs get <siteId> --tail 1000 --output-file ./debug.log

Filter by level (error  , warning  , notice  , info  ), search for specific text, show the newest lines first, or save everything to a file. This pairs especially well with AI — ask your assistant to pull the recent errors and explain what's going wrong.

Staging environments

If you use environments, you can manage staging and other child environments:

static-studio environments list <siteId> static-studio environments enable <siteId> static-studio environments create <siteId> staging static-studio environments delete <siteId> staging --yes

Tags

Organize your sites with colored tags - useful for grouping client work:

static-studio tags list static-studio tags create Client --color '#3858E9' static-studio tags assign <siteId> <tagId> static-studio tags site <siteId>

SSH / SFTP keys

static-studio ssh list static-studio ssh add <siteId> --key-file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub static-studio ssh connect <siteId> <keyId>

Managing multiple accounts

If you manage sites for more than one account - for example, an agency handling several clients - you can keep separate logins using profiles. Add --profile <name>   to any command:

static-studio --profile client-a login --email admin@client-a.com static-studio --profile client-b login --email admin@client-b.com static-studio --profile client-a sites list

Each profile keeps its own saved session, so you can switch between accounts without signing in and out.

Safety and confirmations

A handful of commands can't be undone, so the CLI always asks you to confirm before running them. These include:

• sites delete  
• environments delete   and environments disable  
• tags delete  
• team remove  

If you (or an automation) need to skip the prompt - for example, in a script - add the --yes   flag. If you cancel a prompt, nothing happens, and the command exits cleanly.

Quick reference