Automation and integrations

Choose an integration, prepare its identity and access, then test the work it needs to do.

Prepare automation access

For CI/CD or custom scripts that run commands or transfer files, create an application and issue a service token. Give it only the scopes and server, command, or file rules the job needs. Store its key in your CI/CD secret store. Use separate tokens for different environments, rotate keys regularly, and disable a token when the job ends. Token types and lifecycle compares other credentials, including personal API and server registration tokens.

To run commands across several servers, request a work session with the required command capability and use alpacon exec. This supports rolling updates, configuration changes, maintenance scripts, and health checks. Check the work-session features and server groups before targeting a fleet.

Test a command on a staging server first. Review command history after execution and plan a rollback for deployment changes.

Use workspace roles to manage who can prepare deployment access.

Identity providers

Single sign-on (SSO)

Integrate with your organization’s identity provider for centralized authentication.

Team notifications and approvals

Slack

Connect the Slack app, choose a notification channel, link members, and review approval requests from Slack.

CI/CD platforms

GitHub Actions is our official integration, with four published actions. Every other CI system drives Alpacon through the CLI and the REST API with scoped service tokens—the guides below show how.

GitHub Actions

Automate deployments with the official Alpacon actions.

GitLab CI

Run Alpacon from GitLab CI/CD using the CLI container.

Jenkins

Run Alpacon from a Jenkins pipeline using the CLI container.

Automation guides

REST API automation

Run scoped commands and transfers from a custom integration.

Ansible

Run playbooks with an application account and service token.

Automation failure modes

Diagnose token, account, access-rule, and sudo failures.

AI agents

MCP server

Connect Claude, Cursor, VS Code, and other AI assistants through the Alpacon MCP server with scoped, audited access.

Benefits of integration

  • No SSH keys in CI/CD: Use scoped service tokens instead
  • Audit trail: Review command history and token activity
  • Command ACLs: Restrict what automation can execute
  • Repeatable jobs: Use the same scoped credentials in deployment scripts and CI jobs

Getting started

  1. Create a service token for automation
  2. Choose your integration platform above
  3. Follow the platform-specific guide
  4. Test with simple commands first

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