hetzner-deploy

Hetzner Cloud CLI Skill

Skill for provisioning and managing infrastructure on Hetzner Cloud using the hcloud CLI. Use the decision trees below to find the right command group, then load detailed references.

Your knowledge of Hetzner Cloud pricing, server types, locations, and API behavior may be outdated. Prefer retrieval over pre-training when citing specific numbers, available types, or configuration options. The reference files alongside this skill are starting points extracted from the official CLI docs.

Authentication

The CLI authenticates via API token. Set the HCLOUD_TOKEN environment variable or create a named context:

# Stateless (CI, scripting, agent use)
export HCLOUD_TOKEN="your-api-token"

# Named context (interactive use)
hcloud context create my-project

Generate tokens at https://console.hetzner.cloud under your project's Security > API Tokens.

Installation

# macOS / Linux (Homebrew)
brew install hcloud

# Linux (binary)
curl -sSLO https://github.com/hetznercloud/cli/releases/latest/download/hcloud-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin --no-same-owner -xzf hcloud-linux-amd64.tar.gz hcloud

# Docker
docker run --rm -e HCLOUD_TOKEN="$HCLOUD_TOKEN" hetznercloud/cli:latest <command>

Quick Decision Trees

"I need compute"

Need a server?
├─ Create a new server → hcloud server create --name <n> --type <t> --image <img>
├─ With cloud-init user data → add --user-data-from-file <path>
├─ With firewall + network → add --firewall <fw> --network <net>
├─ List available types → hcloud server-type list
├─ List available images → hcloud image list
├─ SSH into server → hcloud server ssh <name>
├─ Create snapshot → hcloud server create-image --type snapshot <name>
├─ Rescue mode → hcloud server enable-rescue <name>
└─ Delete server → hcloud server delete <name>

"I need networking"

Need networking?
├─ Private network (VPC) → hcloud network create --name <n> --ip-range <cidr>
│  ├─ Add subnet → hcloud network add-subnet --network <n> --type cloud --network-zone <z> --ip-range <cidr>
│  └─ Attach server → hcloud server attach-to-network --network <n> --server <s>
├─ Firewall → hcloud firewall create --name <n> --rules-file <json>
│  ├─ Apply to server → hcloud firewall apply-to-resource --firewall <n> --type server --server <s>
│  └─ Replace rules → hcloud firewall replace-rules --rules-file <json> <name>
├─ Load balancer → hcloud load-balancer create --name <n> --type <t> --location <loc>
│  ├─ Add target → hcloud load-balancer add-target --server <s> <lb>
│  └─ Add service → hcloud load-balancer add-service --protocol <p> --listen-port <port> <lb>
├─ Floating IP → hcloud floating-ip create --type ipv4 --home-location <loc>
│  └─ Assign → hcloud floating-ip assign <ip> --server <s>
└─ Primary IP → hcloud primary-ip create --name <n> --type ipv4 --datacenter <dc>