The Smooth CDN CLI requires Node.js and an active Smooth CDN account.

Requirements

• Smooth CDN account – create an account
• Node.js ≥ 18.17.0 (recommended: Node.js 20 LTS)

Install CLI

Install the Smooth CDN CLI globally using npm:

npm install -g @smoothcdn/cli

After installation, the scdn command will be available globally.

The Smooth CDN CLI authenticates the user and stores an access token locally. All subsequent commands use this token to communicate with the Smooth CDN API.

Login

To authenticate with your Smooth CDN account, run:

scdn login

The login process opens a browser window where you can securely sign in to your account.

Re-running the login command replaces the current session and access token.

Environment variable

You can store your API token in the SCDN_TOKEN environment variable to authenticate CLI commands in non-interactive environments.

SCDN_TOKEN=your_token scdn status

The Smooth CDN CLI uses a local configuration file (.scdn.json) to define project details, asset sources and version if applicable.

This file is created and maintained automatically when runningscdn init or scdn load and is required for all asset-related commands.

Configuration file

The configuration file must be located in the root directory of your project and named .scdn.json.

{
  "project": "My New Project",
  "projectSlug": "my-new-project",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "blockBots": false,
  "blockHeadless": false,
  "sources": [
    "./build/app/**/*.{js,css}",
    "./build/images/**"
  ],
  "excludes": [
    "./build/app/tmp/*"
  ],
  "protected": [
    "./build/app/pro/*.{js,css}",
  ],
  "imageVariants": [
    "mobile": 360,
    "tablet": 720,
    "desktop": 1600
  ],
  "replacePath": {
    "/dist/": "/",
    "/build/": "/assets/"
  }
}

Project and version

The top-level project fields identify the Smooth CDN project and define the active version used for deployments.

• project – Human-readable project name.
• projectSlug – URL-safe project identifier.
• blockBots – Blocks known bot user agents.
• blockHeadless – Blocks headless browser environments.
• version – Active version used when pushing assets - applicable for projects with type versioned.

There're also properties projectId and userSlug that are automatically stored during scdn init or scdn load commands.

Asset sources and excludes

Asset discovery is based on glob patterns defined per project. Only matched files are uploaded during deployment.

• sources – Glob patterns defining which files are included.
• excludes – Glob patterns defining files that should be ignored.
• protected – Glob patterns defining files that should be flagged as protected - can be accessed only with access token.

Source, exclude and protected patterns are evaluated using standard glob matching.

Assets path adjustment

If you want to rewrite uploaded asset paths, add the replacePath field to .scdn.json.

Image variants

If you want to create multiple image variants, add the imageVariants field to .scdn.json. The CLI will automatically generate and upload resized variants for images, linked to the original asset.

The following commands are available in the Smooth CDN CLI. All commands operate based on the local .scdn.json configuration file.

scdn login

scdn logout

scdn init

scdn load

scdn pull-config

scdn push-config

scdn create-version <version>

scdn publish-version <version>

scdn push

scdn sync

scdn get-snippet

scdn check-assets

scdn grant-access

scdn revoke-access

scdn status

Smooth CDN CLI can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines to automate asset uploads during your build or deployment process.

This allows you to treat assets as part of your deployment pipeline instead of manually uploading files or committing built assets to your repository.

Why use CI/CD with Smooth CDN?

• Automated uploads — assets are pushed on every build or release.
• Consistent environments — the same pipeline runs locally and in CI.
• No secrets in frontend — authentication happens in the pipeline.

Authentication

In CI environments, authenticate the CLI using the SCDN_TOKEN environment variable.

You can generate API token in API Keys.

export SCDN_TOKEN="your_api_token"

Add following file in .github/workflows/deploy-scdn.yml to add GitHub Action:

name: Upload assets to Smooth CDN

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  upload-assets:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: "npm"

      - name: Install Smooth CDN CLI
        run: npm install -g @smoothcdn/cli

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build assets
        run: npm run build

      - name: Upload assets to Smooth CDN
        env:
          SCDN_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SCDN_TOKEN }}
        run: |
          scdn create-version
          scdn push
          scdn publish-version

Store your API token as a repository secret named SCDN_TOKEN.
GitHub secrets can be added at https://github.com/[login]/[repo-name]/settings/secrets/actions/new