For Admins

An admin provisions and manages cloud dev environments. Typically a tech lead, DevOps engineer, or senior developer.

Provision a board

just board

The wizard handles Azure login, VM creation, cloud-init, project provisioning, and health verification. By default, boards use Entra ID authentication — developers sign in with their Azure AD identity and no SSH keys are needed.

Authentication methods

Board supports two auth methods, chosen during provisioning:

• Entra ID (default) — developers authenticate via az login. Short-lived certificates are generated automatically. No SSH keys in the board pass. Requires Azure CLI on the developer’s machine.
• SSH key — a per-developer ed25519 key pair is generated and bundled into the board pass. No Azure CLI needed on the developer’s machine.

Granting access (Entra ID)

For Entra ID boards, grant developers access with a role:

just grant-access jbloggs jane@contoso.com           # developer role (default)
just grant-access jbloggs jane@contoso.com role=admin # full admin access

Roles: admin (VM admin + Key Vault), developer (SSH + reader), viewer (reader only).

Manage boards

just admin

The admin menu shows fleet status with coloured dots (green = running, grey = stopped) and provides options to start/stop boards, re-provision projects, create board passes, manage secrets, and run health checks.

Create a board pass

just export-pass jbloggs

Creates a starter kit zip with connection details, the VS Code extension, and a setup script. For Entra ID boards, the pass is unencrypted (no passphrase needed) and contains connection metadata only (no keys). For SSH key boards, the pass is encrypted and bundles the SSH private key — share the passphrase via a separate channel (in person, phone, different messaging app).

To force SSH key auth regardless of VM tag:

just export-ssh-pass jbloggs

Governance

View enforced policies (VM limits, allowed SKUs, required auth):

just policies

View cost breakdown by developer:

just costs
just costs-dev jbloggs

Project manifests

Each project has a .project.yaml manifest in projects/:

name: "my-api"
repo: "git@github.com:org/my-api.git"
requires:
  tools: [python3, uv]
install:
  - label: "Install dependencies"
    run: "uv sync"
docker:
  compose_file: docker-compose.yml
  containers:
    - name: my-api-postgres
      health_cmd: "pg_isready -U myapi"
services:
  - name: my-api
    exec: "uvicorn main:app --port 8000"
    health_url: "http://localhost:8000/health"
health:
  - label: "API"
    check: "curl -sf http://localhost:8000/health"
    port: 8000

See Manifest Schema for the full spec.

Fleet operations

just fleet-status

Shows all boards across your environment with status, uptime, and health.