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ubx ship is the primary deploy command. It compiles XCL, builds the IR, invokes the plugin’s Compile and Apply RPCs, streams progress events, and writes an apply record.

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Usage

ubx ship [path] [flags]

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Flags

FlagDescription
--yes / -ySkip confirmation prompt (required in CI)
--allDeploy all stacks in topology order
--target <binding>Limit to specific resource bindings (repeatable)

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Examples

ubx ship                             # deploy current stack (prompts)
ubx ship --yes                       # deploy without prompting
ubx ship --all                       # deploy all stacks in order
ubx ship --target networking.vpc     # deploy only the vpc binding
ubx ship --target networking.vpc --target networking.subnet
ubx ship ./networking                # deploy a specific directory

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What happens

  1. Compile — runs the XCL pipeline, generates code (__main__.py, etc.)
  2. Typecheck — validates all files
  3. IR — builds the IR JSON
  4. Plugin Compile — invokes plugin’s Compile RPC, gets artifact_uri
  5. Confirmation — prompts unless --yes / -y
  6. Plugin Apply — invokes plugin’s Apply RPC, streams progress events
  7. Apply record — writes .ubx/last-apply.json on success

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Progress output

  ◆ Compile     networking → .ubx/__main__.py
  ◆ Typecheck   2 file(s)
  ◆ IR          building…
  ◆ Compile     (plugin)
  ◆ Ship        running pulumi up…

  + aws:ec2:Vpc                 networking-vpc          (12.1s)
  + aws:ec2:Subnet              networking-public-1a    (8.2s)
  + aws:ec2:Subnet              networking-public-1b    (8.4s)

  done (28.7s)  ·  3 created  ·  0 changed  ·  0 destroyed

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Apply record

On success, ubx writes .ubx/last-apply.json: 
{
  "plugin_name": "pulumi",
  "artifact_uri": "file:///path/to/stack/.ubx",
  "stack_name": "networking",
  "timestamp": "2026-07-07T10:00:00Z"
}
ubx terminate reads this record to skip recompilation.

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Backend URL resolution

ubx resolves the backend URL in priority order:
  1. backend {} block in the stack IR
  2. PULUMI_BACKEND_URL environment variable
  3. Default: file://<stack-dir>/.ubx/state/
Backend URL format per type:
  • local → file://<dir>/.ubx/state/
  • s3 → s3://bucket/key
  • gcs → gs://bucket
  • azblob → azblob://container
  • pulumi → https://api.pulumi.com

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Hooks

Before/after hooks run at these points: 
workspace {
  hooks {
    before_ship = "scripts/pre-deploy.sh"
    after_ship  = "scripts/post-deploy.sh"
  }
}

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Exit codes

CodeMeaning
0Deploy succeeded
1Compile, typecheck, or deploy error; user cancelled