--- title: Get started with the command line | Tiger Data Docs description: Manage the resources in your Tiger Cloud project using the Tiger CLI or REST API --- Tiger Data supplies a clean, programmatic control layer for Tiger Cloud. This includes REST APIs and CLI commands that enable humans, machines, and AI agents to easily provision, configure, and manage Tiger Cloud services programmatically. - [Tiger CLI](#tab-panel-539) - [Tiger REST API](#tab-panel-540) Tiger CLI is a command-line interface that you use to manage Tiger Cloud resources including VPCs, services, read replicas, and related infrastructure. Tiger CLI calls Tiger REST API to communicate with Tiger Cloud. This page shows you how to install and set up secure authentication for Tiger CLI, then create your first service. ## Prerequisites for this tutorial To follow these steps, you'll need: - A [Tiger Cloud account](/get-started/quickstart/create-service/index.md). ## Install and configure Tiger CLI 1. **Install Tiger CLI** Use the terminal to install the CLI: - [Debian](#tab-panel-532) - [Ubuntu](#tab-panel-533) - [Red Hat](#tab-panel-534) - [Fedora](#tab-panel-535) - [MacOS](#tab-panel-536) - [Windows PowerShell](#tab-panel-537) - [x-platform](#tab-panel-538) Terminal window ``` curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/timescale/tiger-cli/script.deb.sh | sudo os=any dist=any bash sudo apt-get install tiger-cli ``` Terminal window ``` curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/timescale/tiger-cli/script.deb.sh | sudo os=any dist=any bash sudo apt-get install tiger-cli ``` Terminal window ``` curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/timescale/tiger-cli/script.rpm.sh | sudo os=rpm_any dist=rpm_any bash sudo yum install tiger-cli ``` Terminal window ``` curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/timescale/tiger-cli/script.rpm.sh | sudo os=rpm_any dist=rpm_any bash sudo yum install tiger-cli ``` Terminal window ``` brew install --cask timescale/tap/tiger-cli ``` Terminal window ``` irm https://cli.tigerdata.com/install.ps1 | iex ``` Terminal window ``` curl -fsSL https://cli.tigerdata.com | sh ``` 2. **Set up API credentials** 1. Log Tiger CLI into your Tiger Cloud account: Terminal window ``` tiger auth login ``` Tiger CLI opens Console in your browser. Log in, then click `Authorize`. You can have a maximum of 10 active client credentials. If you get an error, open [credentials](https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com/dashboard/settings) and delete an unused credential. 2. Select a Tiger Cloud project: ``` Auth URL is: https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=lotsOfURLstuff Opening browser for authentication... Select a project: > 1. Tiger Project (tgrproject) 2. YourCompany (Company wide project) (cpnproject) 3. YourCompany Department (dptproject) Use ↑/↓ arrows or number keys to navigate, enter to select, q to quit ``` If only one project is associated with your account, this step is not shown. Where possible, Tiger CLI stores your authentication information in the system keychain/credential manager. If that fails, the credentials are stored in `~/.config/tiger/credentials` with restricted file permissions (600). By default, Tiger CLI stores your configuration in `~/.config/tiger/config.yaml`. 3. **Test your authenticated connection to Tiger Cloud by listing services** Terminal window ``` tiger service list ``` This call returns something like: - No services: ``` 🏜️ No services found! Your project is looking a bit empty. 🚀 Ready to get started? Create your first service with: tiger service create ``` - One or more services: ``` ┌────────────┬─────────────────────┬────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────────┐ │ SERVICE ID │ NAME │ STATUS │ TYPE │ REGION │ CREATED │ ├────────────┼─────────────────────┼────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────────┤ │ tgrservice │ tiger-agent-service │ READY │ TIMESCALEDB │ eu-central-1 │ 2025-09-25 16:09 │ └────────────┴─────────────────────┴────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────────┘ ``` ## Create your first Tiger Cloud service Create a new Tiger Cloud service using Tiger CLI: 1. **Submit a service creation request** By default, Tiger CLI creates a service with 0.5 CPU and 2 GB memory with the `time-series` capability Terminal window ``` tiger service create ``` To control the service configuration, use the [`service create` flags](/reference/tiger-cloud/tiger-cli/index.md). For example, to create a free service, call `tiger service create --memory shared --cpu shared`. Note Free services are currently in beta. Free services with shared CPU/memory are only available in the `us-east-1` region. Standard services can be created in any available AWS or Azure region using the `--region` flag. Tiger Cloud creates a Development environment for you. That is, no delete protection, high-availability, spooling or read replication. You see something like: ``` 🚀 Creating service 'db-11111' (auto-generated name)... ✅ Service creation request accepted! 📋 Service ID: tgrservice 🔐 Password saved to system keyring for automatic authentication 🎯 Set service 'tgrservice' as default service. ⏳ Waiting for service to be ready (wait timeout: 30m0s)... 🎉 Service is ready and running! 🔌 Run 'tiger db connect' to connect to your new service ┌───────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ PROPERTY │ VALUE │ ├───────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Service ID │ tgrservice │ │ Name │ db-11111 │ │ Status │ READY │ │ Type │ TIMESCALEDB │ │ Region │ us-east-1 │ │ CPU │ 0.5 cores (500m) │ │ Memory │ 2 GB │ │ Direct Endpoint │ tgrservice.tgrproject.tsdb.cloud.timescale.com:39004 │ │ Created │ 2025-10-20 20:33:46 UTC │ │ Connection String │ postgresql://tsdbadmin@tgrservice.tgrproject.tsdb.cloud.timescale.com:0007/tsdb?sslmode=require │ │ Console URL │ https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com/dashboard/services/tgrservice │ └───────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` This service is set as default by the CLI. 2. **Check the CLI configuration** Terminal window ``` tiger config show ``` You see something like: ``` api_url: https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com/public/api/v1 console_url: https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com gateway_url: https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com/api docs_mcp: true docs_mcp_url: https://mcp.tigerdata.com/docs project_id: tgrproject service_id: tgrservice output: table analytics: true password_storage: keyring debug: false config_dir: /Users//.config/tiger ``` And that is it, you are ready to use Tiger CLI to manage your services in Tiger Cloud. For the full list of commands, configuration parameters, and global flags, see the [Tiger CLI reference](/reference/tiger-cloud/tiger-cli/index.md). [Tiger REST API](/reference/tiger-cloud-rest/index.md) is a comprehensive RESTful API you use to manage Tiger Cloud resources including VPCs, services, and read replicas. This page shows you how to set up secure authentication for the Tiger REST API and create your first service. ## Prerequisites for this tutorial To follow these steps, you'll need: - A [Tiger Cloud account](/get-started/quickstart/create-service/index.md). * [curl](https://curl.se/) installed. ## Configure secure authentication Tiger REST API uses HTTP Basic Authentication with access keys and secret keys. All API requests must include proper authentication headers. 1. **Set up API credentials** 1. In Tiger Console [copy your project ID](/integrate/find-connection-details/#find-your-project-and-service-id/index.md) and store it securely using an environment variable: Terminal window ``` export TIGERDATA_PROJECT_ID="your-project-id" ``` 2. In Tiger Console [create your client credentials](/integrate/find-connection-details/#create-client-credentials/index.md) and store them securely using environment variables: Terminal window ``` export TIGERDATA_ACCESS_KEY="Public key" export TIGERDATA_SECRET_KEY="Secret key" ``` 2. **Configure the API endpoint** Set the base URL in your environment: Terminal window ``` export API_BASE_URL="https://console.cloud.tigerdata.com/public/api/v1" ``` 3. **Test your authenticated connection to Tiger REST API by listing the services in the current Tiger Cloud project** Terminal window ``` curl -X GET "${API_BASE_URL}/projects/${TIGERDATA_PROJECT_ID}/services" \ -u "${TIGERDATA_ACCESS_KEY}:${TIGERDATA_SECRET_KEY}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" ``` This call returns something like: - No services: ``` []% ``` - One or more services: ``` [{"service_id":"tgrservice","project_id":"tgrproject","name":"tiger-eon", "region_code":"us-east-1","service_type":"TIMESCALEDB", "created":"2025-10-20T12:21:28.216172Z","paused":false,"status":"READY", "resources":[{"id":"104977","spec":{"cpu_millis":500,"memory_gbs":2,"volume_type":""}}], "metadata":{"environment":"DEV"}, "endpoint":{"host":"tgrservice.tgrproject.tsdb.cloud.timescale.com","port":11111}}] ``` ## Create your first Tiger Cloud service Create a new service using the Tiger REST API: 1. **Create a service using the POST endpoint** Terminal window ``` curl -X POST "${API_BASE_URL}/projects/${TIGERDATA_PROJECT_ID}/services" \ -u "${TIGERDATA_ACCESS_KEY}:${TIGERDATA_SECRET_KEY}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "name": "my-first-service", "addons": ["time-series"], "region_code": "us-east-1", "replica_count": 1, "cpu_millis": "1000", "memory_gbs": "4" }' ``` Tiger Cloud creates a Development environment for you. That is, no delete protection, high-availability, spooling or read replication. You see something like: ``` {"service_id":"tgrservice","project_id":"tgrproject","name":"my-first-service", "region_code":"us-east-1","service_type":"TIMESCALEDB", "created":"2025-10-20T22:29:33.052075713Z","paused":false,"status":"QUEUED", "resources":[{"id":"105120","spec":{"cpu_millis":1000,"memory_gbs":4,"volume_type":""}}], "metadata":{"environment":"PROD"}, "endpoint":{"host":"tgrservice.tgrproject.tsdb.cloud.timescale.com","port":00001}, "initial_password":"notTellingYou", "ha_replicas":{"sync_replica_count":0,"replica_count":1}} ``` 2. **Save `service_id` from the response to a variable:** Terminal window ``` # Extract service_id from the JSON response export SERVICE_ID="service_id-from-response" ``` 3. **Check the configuration for the service** Terminal window ``` curl -X GET "${API_BASE_URL}/projects/${TIGERDATA_PROJECT_ID}/services/${SERVICE_ID}" \ -u "${TIGERDATA_ACCESS_KEY}:${TIGERDATA_SECRET_KEY}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" ``` You see something like: ``` {"service_id":"tgrservice","project_id":"tgrproject","name":"my-first-service", "region_code":"us-east-1","service_type":"TIMESCALEDB", "created":"2025-10-20T22:29:33.052075Z","paused":false,"status":"READY", "resources":[{"id":"105120","spec":{"cpu_millis":1000,"memory_gbs":4,"volume_type":""}}], "metadata":{"environment":"DEV"}, "endpoint":{"host":"tgrservice.tgrproject.tsdb.cloud.timescale.com","port":11111}, "ha_replicas":{"sync_replica_count":0,"replica_count":1}} ``` And that is it, you are ready to use the [Tiger REST API](/reference/tiger-cloud-rest/index.md) to manage your services in Tiger Cloud. ## Security best practices Follow these security guidelines when working with the Tiger REST API: - **Credential management** - Store API credentials as environment variables, not in code - Use credential rotation policies for production environments - Never commit credentials to version control systems - **Network security** - Use HTTPS endpoints exclusively for API communication - Implement proper certificate validation in your HTTP clients - **Data protection** - Use secure storage for service connection strings and passwords - Implement proper backup and recovery procedures for created services - Follow data residency requirements for your region