Phala Cloud Documentation — Confidential AI on TEE

This command is marked as unstable and may change in future releases.

Command: `phala instances add`

phala instances add [options]

Create a new instance under an existing app

Option	Description
`--app-id <value>`	App ID (hex identifier). Defaults to app_id in phala.toml.
`--node-id <value>, --teepod-id <value>`	Target node ID for the new instance.
`-c, --compose-file <value>`	Path to Docker Compose file.
`--pre-launch-script <value>`	Path to pre-launch script file.
`-e, --env-file <value>`	Path to environment file.
`--compose-hash <value>`	Compose hash to use (existing revision).

Option	Description
`--private-key <value>`	Private key for signing on-chain transactions (or set PRIVATE_KEY env var)
`--rpc-url <value>`	RPC URL for on-chain KMS transactions (or set ETH_RPC_URL env var)
`--prepare-only`	Prepare the instance and generate a commit token. Skips all on-chain operations.
`--commit`	Commit a previously prepared instance using a commit token. Requires —token, —compose-hash, and —transaction-hash.
`--token <value>`	Commit token from a prepare-only request.
`--transaction-hash <value>`	Transaction hash proving on-chain compose hash registration. Pass `already-registered` to skip the proof and rely on state-only verification.

Option	Description
`-h, --help`	Show help information for the current command
`-v, --version`	Show CLI version
`--api-token TOKEN, --api-key TOKEN`	API token for authenticating with Phala Cloud
`-j, --json, --no-json`	Output in JSON format
`-i, --interactive`	Enable interactive mode
`--cvm-id <value>`	CVM identifier (UUID, app_id, instance_id, or name)
`--profile PROFILE`	Temporarily use a different auth profile for this command
`--api-version <value>`	API version to use (e.g. 2025-10-28, 2026-01-21)

phala instances add --app-id <app-id> --node-id 5

phala instances add --app-id <app-id> --node-id 5 --compose-file docker-compose.yml

phala instances add --app-id <app-id> --node-id 5 --compose-file docker-compose.yml --prepare-only

phala instances add --app-id <app-id> --commit --token <token> --compose-hash <hash> --transaction-hash <tx-hash>