# The command line in CI

Use qaldy from GitHub Actions or any CI job with a read-only token, JSON output and exit codes. What to give it and what it can never do.

URL: https://docs.qaldy.com/cli/ci/

CI has no browser, so it uses a **token** instead of `qaldy login`.

## Make a token

From your terminal, once:

```sh
qaldy tokens create --name "GitHub Actions" --read-only --days 90
```

The command asks you to approve in the browser (a token can never make another token), prints the token once and saves nothing. Put it in the job's secrets as `QALDY_TOKEN`. Prefer `--read-only` and a short life. Revoke it on the Agents page in the console at any time.

## A GitHub Actions job

```yaml
name: Qaldy health
on:
  schedule: [{ cron: "0 6 * * 1-5" }]
jobs:
  check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with: { node-version: 22 }
      - name: Fail if any app is failing
        env:
          QALDY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.QALDY_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          npx --yes --package=https://app.qaldy.com/cli/qaldy-cli.tgz qaldy apps --status failing --json \
            | node -e 'const d=JSON.parse(require("fs").readFileSync(0)); if (d.apps.length) { console.error(d.apps.map(a=>a.name).join(", ")); process.exit(1) }'
```

## What to rely on

- **Exit codes** are part of the contract: 0 done, 1 failed, 2 usage, 3 not signed in or token refused, 4 planned. See [the full list](https://docs.qaldy.com/cli/).
- **`--json`** prints one JSON document on standard output and nothing else. Progress goes to standard error.
- **`CI=true`** (which most CI sets) makes the audit log record the call as `ci/…` and keeps the CLI from opening a browser.
- **`qaldy apps run <app> --wait`** exits 1 if the run fails, so a deploy job can gate on it.

## What CI cannot do

A token acts as the person who approved it, in one workspace, and is refused on anything that spends money, changes who has access or widens an app's reach. A CI job cannot approve a build that sends messages, reaches the internet, uses AI or starts shared; it gets `approval_needs_console` and a link. That is by design, and it is why a leaked CI token is a bounded problem.