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Cinch

cinch auth & cinch pair

cinch auth login

Section titled “cinch auth login”

Create a new account and sign in. Opens a browser for GitHub or Google sign-in; once complete, credentials are saved to ~/.cinch/config.json.

Terminal window
cinch auth login

To target a self-hosted relay:

Terminal window
cinch auth login --relay https://your-relay.example.com
FlagTypeDefaultDescription
--relaystringapi.cinchcli.comOverride relay URL

cinch auth pair <token>

Section titled “cinch auth pair <token>”

Exchange a pairing token for a per-device auth token. Run this on a remote machine after generating a token with cinch auth regenerate-pair-token (or after cinch auth login on the primary device).

Terminal window
cinch auth pair abc123xyz

cinch auth status

Section titled “cinch auth status”

Show current authentication state: user ID, relay URL, and hostname.

Terminal window
cinch auth status

cinch auth logout

Section titled “cinch auth logout”

Remove stored credentials locally and revoke the device on the relay.

Terminal window
cinch auth logout

cinch auth regenerate-pair-token

Section titled “cinch auth regenerate-pair-token”

Mint a new single-use pairing token to add another device without re-logging in.

Terminal window
cinch auth regenerate-pair-token

cinch auth device-code

Section titled “cinch auth device-code”

Start the device-code flow explicitly (non-interactive / headless). Useful in scripts where you want the device-code URL printed without the TUI wizard.

Terminal window
cinch auth device-code

cinch pair <ssh-target>

Section titled “cinch pair <ssh-target>”

The fast path for remote machines. Regenerates a pair token, SSHes into the target, installs cinch if needed, and pairs it with your account — all in one command. No manual steps on the remote end.

Terminal window
# Basic
cinch pair user@remotehost


# SSH alias (configured in ~/.ssh/config)
cinch pair devbox


# Skip install if cinch is already on the remote
cinch pair user@remotehost --skip-install


# Use a custom relay on the remote machine
cinch pair user@remotehost --relay-url https://custom-relay.example.com
FlagTypeDefaultDescription
--skip-installboolfalseSkip cinch binary installation on the remote
--relay-urlstring—Override the relay URL configured on the remote machine

The SSH target can be anything ssh <target> accepts. For non-standard ports or jump hosts, configure them in ~/.ssh/config and pass the alias as the target.