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Ghostwriter CLI reads and writes to the .env file and tries to establish an outbound network connection when you run the update and version commands. The CLI only writes to Ghostwriter’s .env file and only reads Ghostwriter’s .env and VERSION files. For network connectivity, it only connects to GitHub’s REST API to pull the version information for Ghostwriter and Ghostwriter CLI’s latest tagged releases. However, these actions taken by a downloaded binary will cause some anti-malware and EDR solutions to flag Ghostwriter CLI as malware. If you encounter an issue with such a solution blocking Ghostwriter CLI from executing, please add the binary to your allowlist or exclusions list.We are working to try to get Ghostwriter CLI to be trusted, as it once was, but these issues come and go.If you have concerns about this behavior, you can build Ghostwriter CLI from source. See the GitHub repository. Further, you can inspect the source code to verify its behavior and check the build hashes against the releases page.

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Using Ghostwriter CLI to Manage the Server

Ghostwriter CLI can handle just about anything you might need or want to do with your Ghostwriter installation. Running the tool with the help command–or no command–will print the latest usage information. The following sections explain some of the core functionality.
By default, all commands target a production environment. Provide the --dev if you’re interacting with a development environment. Every command can accept the --dev flag.

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Managing the Server Configuration

The config command is your Swiss Army knife when managing your server configuration. If you don’t provide any subcommands or arguments, the command prints your current configuration values (the contents of your server’s DotEnv file). You can pull and set configuration values with config. Use config get to fetch a specific value or set of values. Use config set to change a value. There are also several subcommands to help you manage hostnames and origins you trust: allowhost, disallowhost, trustorigin, and distrustorigin. Use these subcommands to adjust those values, as the Quick Start guide describes.

Quickstart | Ghostwriter | Ghostwriter

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Managing Docker Containers

Ghostwriter CLI’s containers command contains the following subcommands:
  • build : Rebuild the containers (not the data volumes)
  • up : Bring up Ghostwriter containers
  • down : Bring down Ghostwriter containers
  • start: Start all stopped services and restart any running services
  • stop: Stop all running services
  • restart : Stop and restart all services
If you need to check which containers are running, issue the running command. This command lists all running containers related to Ghostwriter. The output will look something like this (edited for easier display):
Running Containers
$ ./ghostwriter-cli running
[+] Collecting list of running Ghostwriter containers...
[+] Found 4 running Ghostwriter containers

 Name                   Container ID    Image                           Status                  Ports
 ––––––––––––           ––––––––––––    ––––––––––––                    ––––––––––––            ––––––––––––
 ghostwriter_graphql    d90e....        ghostwriter_local_graphql       Up 43 hours (healthy)   0.0.0.0:9691:9691 » 9691/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8080:8080 » 8080/tcp
 ghostwriter_queue      0559....        ghostwriter_local_queue         Up 43 hours (healthy)
 ghostwriter_django     bf9b....        ghostwriter_local_django        Up 43 hours (healthy)   0.0.0.0:8000:8000 » 8000/tcp
 ghostwriter_postgres   9992....        ghostwriter_production_postgres Up 43 hours (healthy)   0.0.0.0:5432:5432 » 5432/tcp
The Status column shows the uptime and health of the service. If you see an unhealthy status that the service failed a health check and may not work properly. Learn more about health checks here: Health Monitoring
You can use the logs command to view a particular container’s recent log events. The command requires the name of a running container. Valid container names are:
  • all
  • django
  • graphql
  • nginx
  • postgres
  • redis
With all, logs from all running containers will be returned. By default, logs will return up to 500 lines. You can use the --lines flag to adjust how many lines you want to retrieve.
Viewing Django Logs
$ ./ghostwriter-cli logs django

PostgreSQL is available
No changes detected
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: account, admin, api, auth, commandcenter, contenttypes, django_q, home, oplog, reporting, rest_framework_api_key, rolodex, sessions, shepherd, sites, socialaccount, users
Running migrations:
  No migrations to apply.
INFO:     Will watch for changes in these directories: ['/app']
INFO:     Uvicorn running on http://0.0.0.0:8000 (Press CTRL+C to quit)
INFO:     Started reloader process [18] using watchgod
INFO:     Started server process [20]
INFO 2022-06-06 21:47:37,673 server 20 140231754545992 Started server process [20]
INFO:     Waiting for application startup.
INFO 2022-06-06 21:47:37,673 on 20 140231754545992 Waiting for application startup.
INFO:     ASGI 'lifespan' protocol appears unsupported.
INFO 2022-06-06 21:47:37,674 on 20 140231754545992 ASGI 'lifespan' protocol appears unsupported.
INFO:     Application startup complete.
INFO 2022-06-06 21:47:37,674 on 20 140231754545992 Application startup complete.