volt/docs/man/volt.1.md

VOLT(1) — Unified Linux Platform Management

NAME

volt — unified CLI for managing containers, VMs, services, networking, storage, and more

SYNOPSIS

volt [command] [subcommand] [flags]

volt ps [filter] [flags]

volt container command [name] [flags]

volt vm command [name] [flags]

volt service command [name] [flags]

volt net command [flags]

volt compose command [flags]

DESCRIPTION

volt is a unified Linux platform management CLI that replaces the fragmented toolchain of systemctl, journalctl, machinectl, ip, nft, virsh, and other utilities with a single binary.

It manages three engines:

Voltainer

Container engine built on systemd-nspawn(1). Provides OS-level containerization using Linux namespaces, cgroups v2, and systemd service management.

Voltvisor

Virtual machine engine built on KVM/QEMU. Full hypervisor capabilities with support for live migration, snapshots, and hardware passthrough.

Stellarium

Content-addressed storage backend shared by both engines. Provides deduplication, integrity verification, and efficient image storage using BLAKE3 hashing.

COMMANDS

Workloads

container

Manage Voltainer containers. Subcommands: create, start, stop, restart, kill, exec, attach, shell, list, inspect, logs, cp, rename, update, export, delete.

vm

Manage Voltvisor virtual machines. Subcommands: create, start, stop, destroy, ssh, exec, attach, list.

desktop

Manage desktop VMs (VDI). Subcommands: create, connect, list.

service

Manage systemd services. Subcommands: create, start, stop, restart, reload, enable, disable, status, list, inspect, show, edit, deps, logs, mask, unmask, template, delete.

task

Manage scheduled tasks (systemd timers). Subcommands: create, list, run, status, logs, enable, disable, edit, delete.

Infrastructure

net

Manage networking. Subcommands: create, list, inspect, delete, connect, disconnect, status. Subsystems: bridge, firewall, dns, port, policy, vlan.

volume

Manage persistent volumes. Subcommands: create, list, inspect, attach, detach, resize, snapshot, backup, delete.

image

Manage images. Subcommands: list, pull, build, inspect, import, export, tag, push, delete.

cas

Stellarium CAS operations. Subcommands: status, info, build, verify, gc, dedup, pull, push, sync.

Observability

ps

List all running workloads — containers, VMs, and services — in one unified view.

logs

View logs for any workload. Auto-detects type via the systemd journal.

top

Show real-time CPU, memory, and process counts for all workloads.

events

Stream real-time platform events.

Composition & Orchestration

compose

Manage declarative multi-service stacks. Subcommands: up, down, start, stop, restart, ps, logs, build, pull, exec, config, top, events.

cluster

Manage cluster nodes. Subcommands: status, node (list, add, drain, remove).

System

daemon

Manage the volt daemon. Subcommands: start, stop, restart, status, reload, config.

system

Platform information and maintenance. Subcommands: info, health, update, backup, restore, reset.

config

Configuration management. Subcommands: show, get, set, edit, validate, reset.

tune

Performance tuning. Subcommands: show, profile, cpu, memory, io, net, sysctl.

Shortcuts

get resource

List resources by type. Routes to canonical list commands.

describe resource name

Show detailed resource info. Routes to canonical inspect commands.

delete resource name

Delete a resource. Routes to canonical delete commands.

run image

Quick-start a container from an image.

ssh vm-name

SSH into a VM.

exec container -- command

Execute a command in a container.

connect desktop

Connect to a desktop VM.

status

Platform status overview (alias for system info).

GLOBAL FLAGS

-h, --help

Show help for the command.

-o, --output format

Output format: table (default), json, yaml, wide.

-q, --quiet

Suppress non-essential output.

--debug

Enable debug logging to stderr.

--no-color

Disable colored output.

--config path

Config file path (default: /etc/volt/config.yaml).

--timeout seconds

Command timeout in seconds (default: 30).

FILES

/usr/local/bin/volt

The volt binary.

/etc/volt/config.yaml

Main configuration file.

/etc/volt/profiles/

Custom tuning profiles.

/var/lib/volt/

Persistent data (containers, VMs, images, volumes, CAS store).

/var/run/volt/volt.sock

Daemon Unix socket.

/var/run/volt/volt.pid

Daemon PID file.

/var/log/volt/daemon.log

Daemon log.

/var/log/volt/audit.log

Audit trail of state-changing operations.

/var/cache/volt/

Cache directory (safe to delete).

ENVIRONMENT

VOLT_CONFIG

Config file path override.

VOLT_COLOR

Color mode: auto, always, never.

VOLT_OUTPUT

Default output format.

VOLT_DEBUG

Enable debug output.

VOLT_HOST

Daemon socket path or remote host.

VOLT_CONTEXT

Named context for multi-cluster operation.

VOLT_COMPOSE_FILE

Default compose file path.

EDITOR

Editor for volt service edit and volt config edit.

EXIT CODES

Code	Description
0	Success
1	General error
2	Invalid usage / bad arguments
3	Resource not found
4	Resource already exists
5	Permission denied
6	Daemon not running
7	Timeout
8	Network error
9	Conflicting state
10	Dependency error
11	Insufficient resources
12	Invalid configuration
13	Interrupted by signal

EXAMPLES

List all running workloads:

volt ps

Create and start a container:

volt container create --name web --image ubuntu:24.04 --start

SSH into a VM:

volt ssh db-primary

Check service status:

volt service status nginx

View logs:

volt logs -f web-frontend

Create a scheduled task:

volt task create --name backup --exec /usr/local/bin/backup.sh --calendar daily --enable

Deploy a compose stack:

volt compose up -d

Show platform health:

volt system health

Apply a tuning profile:

volt tune profile apply web-server

SEE ALSO

systemd-nspawn(1), systemctl(1), journalctl(1), qemu-system-x86_64(1), nft(8), ip(8)

VERSION

Volt version 0.2.0

AUTHORS

Volt Platform — https://armoredgate.com