Zero to Hero (CLI)

First installation

Initialise norsk-ctl

Run norsk-ctl init to create the configuration file with your license and default working directory. This only needs to be done once.

$ norsk-ctl init --license-file /home/parallels/internal_dev_license.json --working-directory /tmp/workspace

Proxy user "admin" created
Config written to /tmp/nix-shell.DOxv4h/norsk-ctl-guide-zero-to-hero-cli-uOM88l/config.yaml
Equivalent command: norsk-ctl init --network-mode docker --license-file /home/parallels/internal_dev_license.json --working-directory /tmp/workspace --proxy-user admin --proxy-password '<redacted>'

Launch an instance

$ norsk-ctl instance launch my-studio --hardware none --working-directory /tmp/workspace

Instance launched

Check instance status

$ norsk-ctl instance list

instances:
  - id: my-studio
    name: norsk-studio
    port: 8001
    workflow: ""
    status: healthy
    uptime: 11 seconds ago
    studioTag: 1.27.0-2026-05-08-d0e01eea
    studioImage: norskvideo/norsk-studio
    media:
      name: norsk-inst-my-studio-media
      image: norskvideo/norsk
      tag: 1.0.402-2026-05-08-5d5644d3
      status: healthy
      uptime: 11 seconds ago
proxy:
  name: norsk-proxy-guide-cli
  image: nginx
  tag: 1.29.7-alpine
  status: running
  uptime: 13 seconds ago
runMode: standard

$ norsk-ctl instance describe my-studio

id: my-studio
name: norsk-studio
port: 8001
workflow: ""
status: healthy
uptime: 12 seconds ago
studioTag: 1.27.0-2026-05-08-d0e01eea
studioImage: norskvideo/norsk-studio
media:
  name: norsk-inst-my-studio-media
  image: norskvideo/norsk
  tag: 1.0.402-2026-05-08-5d5644d3
  status: healthy
  uptime: 12 seconds ago
studioUrl: http://localhost:9080/instance/my-studio/studio/
visualiserUrl: http://localhost:9080/instance/my-studio/visualiser/
configDirectory: /tmp/nix-shell.DOxv4h/norsk-ctl-guide-zero-to-hero-cli-uOM88l/instances/my-studio
workingDirectory: /tmp/workspace
logsDirectory: /tmp/nix-shell.DOxv4h/norsk-ctl-guide-zero-to-hero-cli-uOM88l/log/instances/my-studio

Open Norsk Studio

Access the studio UI through the proxy. Sign in with the proxy user configured at init.

Clean up

Delete the instance to stop its containers and free resources.

$ norsk-ctl instance delete my-studio

Instance my-studio removed

The proxy is needed whenever instances are running — with no instances left, it can be stopped to free the port.

$ norsk-ctl proxy stop

The daemon can be stopped and restarted at any time — running instances and the proxy are unaffected.

$ norsk-ctl shutdown --daemon-only

Daemon stopped (pid 630743)