Tips & Tricks

Clever Cloud offers many powerful features designed to make your development work easier. This guide reveals useful capabilities you might not know about, from shortcuts to time-saving tools.

Web Console Features

The Clever Cloud Console (https://console.clever-cloud.com) is your control center for managing applications, add-ons, and organizations. Here are features that can enhance your workflow:

Advanced Menu Filtering

The left sidebar menu includes a powerful search function. Beyond simple name searches, you can use special keywords to filter your resources:

Multi-line Environment Variables

Environment variables support more than just single-line values. When editing variables in simple mode:

1. Click in any variable’s value field
2. Press Enter to create multiple lines
3. Add configuration files, long texts, or structured data

This works across all input modes (simple, expert, and JSON) as well as through Clever Tools and the API.

Learn more about environment variables

Quick Variable Creation

Speed up environment variable creation with these shortcuts:

• Use the Add button or press CTRL+Enter to create new variables
• Switch between simple, expert, and JSON modes for different input styles

Enhanced Logging System

The Console includes a sophisticated logging interface with features for debugging and monitoring:

• Filter logs by:
  • Date and time ranges
  • Text content
  • Regular expressions
  • Specific instances
• Customize your view with:
  • Multiple color themes
  • ANSI code stripping
  • Line wrapping
  • Configurable date formats and time zones
• Share logs easily by selecting and copying lines

Clever Cloud retains your logs for 7 days as part of the standard service.

Explore logging features

Universal Resource Access

Navigate quickly to any resource using these features:

Quick Access Link

Access any application or add-on directly using its ID:

https://console.clever-cloud.com/goto/id

Global Search

Press the / key anywhere in the Console to search for applications, add-ons, or organizations by name or ID.

Keyboard Navigation

Use these shortcuts when viewing applications or add-ons:

Running One-Time Tasks

While Clever Cloud primarily runs continuous services, you can also execute one-time tasks:

1. Define an application as a task in the Information panel, or
2. Create it through Clever Tools: clever create --type TYPE --task "command to execute"

After pushing your code, the application:

1. Starts normally
2. Installs dependencies
3. Completes the build process
4. Executes your specified command
5. Stops automatically when finished

Learn more about task execution

Database Management Tips

Need to update your database? The Console’s migration tool offers several options:

• Upgrade to new major/minor versions without downtime
• Move databases between zones
• Apply patch updates
• Redeploy existing databases

To get the latest patch version or redeploy, simply migrate to the same version, plan, and zone.

Database add-ons documentation
Migration guide

Clever Tools Features

The Clever Cloud CLI provides powerful command-line capabilities. Install it with:

npm i -g clever-tools

Then run clever login to get started.

SSH Access Made Simple

While the platform uses immutable infrastructure, sometimes you need SSH access for debugging. Use these commands:

clever ssh                                         # Connect to default app
clever ssh --app app_id_or_name                    # Connect to specific app
clever ssh -a app_id_or_name -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519  # Use specific key

For extended debugging sessions, set CC_TROUBLESHOOT=true as an environment variable. This keeps your application running for up to 1 hour, even if errors occur.

SSH key management guide

Domain Configuration Diagnostics

Check your domain setup with the built-in diagnostic tool:

clever domain diag                           # Check current application
clever domain diag -a app_id_or_name        # Check specific application
clever domain diag --app app_id_or_name --filter keyword  # Filter results

Application Management

View all your applications with:

clever applications list

This command groups applications by organization for easy reference.

JSON Output Support

Add --format json or -f json to most commands for machine-readable output:

clever applications list --format json

This works well with tools like jq, jless, or jql for further processing.

The Power of clever curl

Access the Clever Cloud API without managing authentication tokens using clever curl. It automatically handles credentials for you:

# Get your account details
clever curl https://api.clever-cloud.com/v2/self

# View all resources with JSON viewer
clever curl https://api.clever-cloud.com/v2/summary | jless

This tool helps you:

• Test API endpoints quickly
• Create automation scripts
• Set up CI/CD pipelines
• Explore available resources

Explore the API documentation

Browser Integration

Open your applications directly from the command line:

# Open default application
clever open
clever open --app app_id_or_name

# Access Console
clever console
clever console --app app_id_or_name

Authentication Options

Multiple ways to authenticate with Clever Tools:

# Use environment variables for login
export CLEVER_TOKEN=TOKEN
export CLEVER_SECRET=SECRET
clever login

# Direct login with credentials
clever login --token TOKEN --secret SECRET

# One-time use without saving credentials
CLEVER_TOKEN=TOKEN CLEVER_SECRET=SECRET clever profile

Contributing to Clever Tools

Clever Tools is open source and built with Node.js. You can:

• Report issues
• Suggest new features
• Submit pull requests
• Join the development community

Clever Tools documentation

Did You Know?

Stay Updated with Clever Cloud

Track platform improvements through:

• Technical Changelog
• RSS Feed
• Blog Updates

Built-in Runtime Tools

Every runtime includes useful tools:

• Node.js (customize version with CC_NODE_VERSION)
• Python
• Ruby
• Development tools (jq, tmux)
• Local Redis server (redis-server)

Path Routing Capabilities

Thanks to the open source load-balancer Sõzu, you can host multiple applications under one domain

mydomain.com/blog  → Blog application
mydomain.com/api   → API application

Each application maintains:

• Independent scaling
• Separate logs
• Individual environment variables
• Automatic TLS certificate generation

Path routing documentation

Create Custom Add-ons

Distribute your services through Clever Cloud:

1. Create an add-on provider
2. Make it available in your organizations
3. Optionally list it in the Clever Cloud Marketplace

Marketplace API documentation

Domain Management

The cleverapps.io domain system offers:

• Automatic app_id.cleverapps.io domains for new applications
• Custom subdomain creation
• Perfect for testing and staging environments

Remove these domains when moving to production with your custom domain.

API-First Platform

Clever Cloud’s entire platform runs on its public API:

• Console interface
• Clever Tools
• SDK features
• Custom integrations

This ensures API reliability and continuous improvement.

API documentation

Web Components

Build custom Clever Cloud interfaces using :

• Open-source Web Components
• Standard-based architecture
• Accessibility-focused design

Available through:

• npm package
• Public repository
• Storybook documentation

Custom Solutions

Clever Cloud offers:

• Public cloud hosting
• On-premise deployments
• Edge computing solutions
• Custom service integration
• Dedicated support

Contact the sales team to discuss your specific needs.