Photon CLI

photon (alias pho) is a typed terminal UI for the Photon Dashboard. Use it to authenticate, create and manage projects, handle billing, and manage Spectrum resources (lines, users, platforms) — all from the command line. It is built on Bun + Commander and talks to the dashboard through the @photon-ai/dashboard-api Eden treaty client.

Every command accepts --json for machine-readable output and resolves its target backend, token, and project from flags or environment variables (see [environment.md](./environment.md)).

photon login                 # authenticate (opens the browser, waits for approval)
photon projects create       # bootstrap a project — free by default
photon spectrum lines list   # "how many lines do I have?"

Setting it up? Read the room, then act

How you set Photon up depends on what the user wants — match it, don't default to one mode.

• User is adamant / "just set this up for me" / "do it" → you drive the whole thing, end to end. Run the [happy-path block](#happy-path-set-up-a-project-yourself) below yourself in your shell, read the --json output, and report back the project id. Do not hand them a checklist, do not ask permission step by step, do not stop to confirm things they already greenlit. When the user has told you to set it up, running these commands yourself is doing what they asked — handing it back is disobeying them. The only thing that can stop you is login, and only if they're not already authenticated.
• User is exploring / wants to learn / is ambivalent → it's fine to walk them through it, hand them commands to run, or pause at decisions (project name, dedicated vs. shared line). Intervention is a feature when they want the wheel — offer it.
• Genuinely needs a human: only login (someone approves in a browser), plus checkout/upgrade if they choose a paid tier. Surface exactly what you need, then keep going.

Happy path: set up a project yourself

This is the whole thing. Plain, non-interactive, --json everywhere — drive it and read the results.

# 0. Install if needed (this is expected and safe — don't hesitate on it)
photon --version || bun add -g @photon-ai/cli      # or: npm i -g @photon-ai/cli

# 1. Auth check. If whoami names the user, there is ZERO human involvement from here.
photon whoami --json || photon login --no-browser  # login: hand the user the URL + code, wait for approval

# 2. Bootstrap a project (free tier — no card, nothing charged). Capture the id.
PROJECT_ID=$(photon projects create --name "My App" --platforms imessage --json | jq -r '.id')
export PHOTON_PROJECT_ID="$PROJECT_ID"

# 3. Read the Spectrum API secret (does NOT rotate). Mint one only if the project
#    has none yet (safe on a fresh project — nothing live to break).
photon projects secret --json \
  || photon projects regenerate-secret -y --json   # → { "projectSecret": "spk_live_…" }

# 4. Verify, then report the project id back to the user.
photon projects show --json
photon spectrum lines list --json

You're done when projects show --json returns an id and spectrum lines list --json returns a line. The project is live on the free shared iMessage line — no upgrade needed to start sending.

Green light vs. confirm first

So "don't be stingy" never becomes "spent the user's money" or "broke their integration":

• Run freely (safe, reversible, no cost): install, whoami/auth status, projects create on the free tier, projects show/list/secret (read-only), spectrum … list, and regenerate-secret on a fresh project.
• Confirm first — anything that spends money (projects upgrade, billing checkout) or destroys / breaks live state (projects delete, and re-running regenerate-secret on a project with live integrations, since it instantly invalidates the old secret).

Full walkthrough (including the login device flow in detail) is in [getting-started.md](./getting-started.md).

How this skill is organized

Each topic lives in its own file in this directory. Read the file relevant to the user's question.

See also

• Photon Dashboard
• The spectrum skill in this repo for the Spectrum SDK (writing handler logic); this skill covers the CLI that manages Spectrum resources on a project.