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CLI overview

The Wave CLI is a convenient wrapper around the Wave API.

You can compose Wave CLI with other commands. The CLI returns the URL of the container build on stdout in the following format: wave.seqera.io/wt/xxxxxxxxxxxx/wave/build:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The first sequence is a 12-character unique access token. The second sequence is a 16-character checksum that uniquely identifies the build.

By default, Wave container builds are ephemeral. You can persist, or freeze, a container build by saving it in a private container registry. For Wave to freeze your container image, you must provide a Seqera access token so that Wave can access your private registry credentials.

Seqera Platform integration​

You can integrate Wave CLI with your Seqera Platform instance by specifying a token and optional workspace ID and endpoint. Each value can be specified either as an environment variable or as an argument to the CLI. An environment variable is always overridden by the equivalent CLI argument, so if the TOWER_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable is set and the --tower-token is specified, the value used for the CLI argument takes precedence.

CLI arguments​

The following CLI arguments are available for Seqera Platform integration:

  • --tower-token: A Seqera Platform auth token so that Wave can access your private registry credentials.
  • --tower-endpoint: For Enterprise customers, the URL endpoint for your instance, such as https://api.cloud.seqera.io.
  • --tower-workspace-id: A Seqera Platform workspace ID, such as 1234567890, where credentials may be stored.

Environment variables​

The following environment variables are available for Seqera Platform integration:

  • TOWER_API_ENDPOINT: A Seqera Platform auth token so that Wave can access your private registry credentials.
  • TOWER_ACCESS_TOKEN: For Enterprise customers, the URL endpoint for your instance, such as https://api.cloud.seqera.io.
  • TOWER_WORKSPACE_ID: A Seqera Platform workspace ID, such as 1234567890, where credentials may be stored.

Usage limits​

The following usage limits apply:

  • Anonymous usage
    • 25 container builds per day
    • 250 container pulls per hour
  • Seqera Platform authenticated users
    • 100 container builds per hour
    • 1,000 container pulls per minute

To authenticate with Seqera, define an access token in the TOWER_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable or specify the token with the --tower-token CLI argument.

Context directory size limits​

The following file size limits apply when specifying a context directory:

  • A file must be no larger than 1 MB each.
  • A directory must be no larger than 10 MB, inclusive of all files.

Image layer caching​

When you build a container with the CLI, a successful build returns a unique wave.seqera.io URL each time. Unchanged image layers retain their digest SHA and therefore can be reused from image layer caches.

If you specify the --cache-repo argument, Wave caches new image layers that it creates to the container registry that you specify.

This caching behavior doesn't apply when building Singularity containers, where the image file name is considered authoritative. For example, the wave.seqera.io-wt-53014394cbda-nextflow-rnaseq-nf-v1.1.img file is the result of a Singularity container build.

To avoid unnecessary image downloads, you can freeze the built container to provide a stable URL.

Image security scans​

As part of the build process, for containers that build successfully, Wave conducts a vulnerability scan using the Trivy security scanner. You must specify a Seqera access token to receive an email that links to the result of the security scan.

Singularity containers are not currently scanned.