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Compute is coming soon and is not yet generally available.
datumctl compute deploys a container image as a workload running across one or more Datum Cloud cities, then gives you the day-to-day commands to scale, restart, and tear it down. It is a first-party plugin rather than a built-in command — install it once and its commands behave exactly like the rest of the CLI.
New to plugins? Using plugins covers installation, upgrades, and how a plugin inherits your active context and credentials. Not installed datumctl itself yet? Start with the Quickstart.

Core concepts

A handful of terms recur across every compute command: compute is project-scoped: every command reads --project (or your active context’s project, injected automatically — see Contexts & scoping). There is no organization-level view and no --namespace flag; all compute resources live in the project’s default namespace.

Requesting access

Compute is a gated service. The first time you run a command that needs it, datumctl checks whether your project is entitled to use Compute:

Not requested

No request has been made yet. On an interactive terminal, the gate offers to submit one for you.

Pending approval

A request is awaiting a manual decision by the service provider. Latency is unbounded.

Active

The project is entitled — every compute command runs normally.

Denied / Revoked

The provider rejected the request (or later revoked it). Recovery is submitting a new request.

The automatic gate

Run any gated command — deploy, workloads, instances, and so on — without access, and on a TTY datumctl prompts you inline:
datumctl checks if Compute is enabled for the project, and — if not — asks whether to request access; on confirmation, it submits the request and waits briefly to see whether the platform approves it immediately or the request needs manual review. Decline, and nothing is submitted — run datumctl compute access request yourself whenever you’re ready. In a non-interactive shell (CI, a script, or a piped command), the gate never prompts; it fails immediately and tells you which command to run.

Checking and requesting access explicitly

Use datumctl compute access to check the current state directly, and access request for more control over submitting one than the automatic prompt gives you:
datumctl compute access prints the state, the platform’s explanation, and — when there’s a next step — the exact command to run:
Add -o json or -o yaml to script against the state instead of parsing prose.

Checking quota

Once active, datumctl compute quota shows how much of your project’s compute allotment is used:
Pass --constrained to show only the resource types that are currently at their limit — the fastest way to check whether a stalled rollout is a quota problem:

Find your way around

Building images

Turn a Dockerfile into an image Compute can run, and check compatibility before you deploy.

Deploying workloads

Deploy a workload from flags or a manifest, and read back its health across cities.

Operations

Roll restarts, watch a rollout, and debug individual instances.

Destroying workloads

Tear down a workload and every instance it created.
  • datumctl compute --help and datumctl compute <command> --help for the full flag reference.
  • Using plugins — how the compute plugin is installed, upgraded, and trusted.
  • Contexts & scoping — how the project a compute command runs against is resolved.
  • Output formats & scripting-o json/-o yaml patterns that apply across compute subcommands.
Last modified on September 2, 2026