erun context
Create and power managed cloud contexts. A managed cloud context is an EC2 instance running k3s that ERun provisions for you — environments deploy into it. It bills while running, so the lifecycle is: create once, then start and stop around your working day.
Synopsis
erun context init [flags]
erun context list
erun context start CONTEXT [--force]
erun context stop CONTEXT
erun context disable-api-stop CONTEXT
erun context enable-api-stop CONTEXT
Subcommands
context init
Provisions a new context: creates a security group, an IAM role + instance profile, launches an EC2 instance and installs k3s via cloud-init, waits for it to come up, and writes the kubeconfig context locally. The instance bills until you stop it.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--alias | Cloud provider alias to launch under (prompted if omitted). |
--context | Context name (auto-generated if omitted). |
--region | Cloud region (default eu-west-2). |
--instance-type | EC2 instance type (default c8gd.2xlarge). |
--disk-size | Root disk GB (default 100). |
--disk-type | Root disk type (default gp3). |
--subnet-id, --security-group-id, --key-name | Optional EC2 overrides. |
context list
Lists configured contexts and refreshes each one's live status from AWS (a read call — no changes).
context start / context stop
Start or stop the EC2 instance and wait for it to reach the target power state. start also re-attaches the instance profile and rewrites the kubeconfig with the new public IP. stop pauses compute billing (the disk still bills).
start is gated by working hours — outside the configured window it refuses, so an idle-stopped context doesn't get woken by accident. --force overrides the gate.
context disable-api-stop / context enable-api-stop
Lock or unlock the instance against being stopped (the AWS DisableApiStop attribute). disable-api-stop keeps an unhealthy context up while you repair it — it blocks the idle monitor, the desktop Stop button, and auto-stop alike. enable-api-stop restores normal stop behaviour.
Examples
erun context init --alias me+123456789012@aws --dry-run # preview the AWS plan
erun context start erun-001-...-eu-west-2
erun context stop erun-001-...-eu-west-2
erun context disable-api-stop erun-001-...-eu-west-2 # while debugging
Error behaviour
| Failure | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Alias not configured. | Aborts before any AWS call (even under --dry-run). |
| Unsupported region / instance type / disk size. | Rejected before launch. |
Context name already exists (init). | Errors; does not relaunch. |
start outside working hours without --force. | Refuses with the window in the message; no instance change. |
Context has no instance ID (start/stop/*-api-stop). | Errors; nothing changes. |
Managed cloud contexts are an additive AWS feature — see Cloud setup for the model and idle stop for auto-stop.