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Your Hiveku dev container runs a full Linux shell. Open a terminal to install packages, run scripts, tail logs, and debug live — no separate local setup required.

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Open the Terminal

1

Open your project

From the dashboard, click into the project you want to work in.
2

Navigate to the Infrastructure Dashboard

Click Settings > Infrastructure Dashboard and find the container for the environment you’re working in (production, staging, development).
3

Expand the container details

Click the container row to expand it. You’ll see status, resource usage, and a Open Terminal button.
4

Click Open Terminal

A terminal panel opens in the dashboard. You can also use the terminal icon in the code editor toolbar as a shortcut.

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Terminal Status Indicator

Every container shows whether terminal access is supported:
StatusMeaning
Yes (green)Terminal is supported on this container
No (red)Legacy container image — no terminal support
CheckingHiveku is inspecting the container
UnknownStatus couldn’t be determined — try refreshing, or redeploy
If you see No, redeploy the project. Your next deployment uses the latest container image, which supports terminal.

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Common Tasks

Once you’re in the shell, you have a full userland. Some typical things you’ll do:

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Add or update packages

# Node / Next.js
npm install stripe
npm update

# Python
python -m pip install requests

# Go
go mod tidy

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Run scripts

# Any script in package.json
npm run test
npm run lint

# Or run a file directly
node scripts/seed.js
python scripts/migrate.py

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Follow logs

tail -f /var/log/app.log

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Inspect env vars

# Shows what's actually injected into the container
cat .env
printenv | grep DATABASE

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Check the runtime

node --version
python --version
whoami
uname -a

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Persistence

Changes to the container filesystem outside your project files don’t persist across restarts. If you install a package with npm install foo and it writes to package.json, that’s fine — it persists. But installing something globally with apt install or writing to /tmp will vanish.
For reliable persistence, install packages through your project’s dependency manifest:
  • package.json for Node projects
  • requirements.txt or pyproject.toml for Python
  • go.mod for Go
When you run npm install <package>, the added dependency in package.json survives restarts. The node_modules directory is rebuilt from that manifest on every fresh container.
Files you edit in the terminal sync back to Hiveku’s file system in real time. Your code editor reflects changes you make with vim, nano, or sed immediately — and vice versa.

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Security

Terminals are scoped to your project and gated on your Hiveku auth token. Key guarantees:
  • Only project collaborators with the right role can open a terminal
  • Sessions are logged for audit purposes
  • The container runs as a non-root user — sudo is intentionally unavailable
If you need elevated access or a custom base image, contact support with your use case.

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Verify the Terminal Works

1

Open the terminal

Use either path above.
2

Run a quick sanity check

Type whoami && pwd && ls. You should see the container user, the project working directory, and a listing of your project files.
3

Try installing a package

npm install lodash (or equivalent in your stack). The package is added and will persist across restarts because it’s now in package.json.

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Troubleshooting

Your project was deployed on an older container image. Redeploy the project from the Hosting page — the new deployment pulls a current image with terminal support.
Usually a network hiccup or an idle timeout. Click Reconnect — your container state is preserved, you just need to re-establish the session. Long-running processes in the background (e.g., tail -f) are killed when the terminal disconnects — use nohup or screen alternatives aren’t installed by default.
The tool isn’t installed. For language-level tools (npm, pip, go), they’re pre-installed for your stack. For system utilities, install what you need via your package manifest. apt may be available but changes won’t persist — install at the project level instead.
Expected — the terminal runs as a non-root user. You can’t sudo and can’t write to system directories. Write inside your project directory or /tmp (for the session).
Give it a second — sync is fast but not instant for large files. If a file you edited in the terminal still shows the old content in the editor, close and reopen the file.

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What’s Next?

View Deployment & Runtime Logs

Debug what’s happening in production

Environment Variables

Configure secrets and runtime config