CLOUD-CONFIG(5)

📦 version 3.4.1, in alpine 3.24

💖 CLOUD-CONFIG(5) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the cloud-config manual page — that's section 5 of the File Formats Manual, and yes it's giving "I read manpages for fun" energy, which is very much you now 💅

✨ NAME ✨

cloud-config — the tiny-cloud-supported cloud-config user-data format 🌸

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

cloud-config describes the subset of cloud-init style user-data that tiny-cloud actually supports.

real talk: this is not a full implementation of upstream cloud-init semantics. Only the keys documented right here are supported by tiny-cloud's #cloud-config handler. no secret bonus keys, no cap 💀

Your user-data document must begin with the header — like, this is non-negotiable bestie:

#cloud-config

👑 SUPPORTED KEYS 👑

  • user — configures the default login user. tiny-cloud recognizes scalar and mapping forms, including name, homedir, shell, primary_group, and gecos. ✨
  • users — configures additional users. The first entry may be default to keep the default user. Supported per-user keys are name, gecos, homedir, shell, primary_group, system, no_create_home, passwd, hashed_passwd, lock_passwd, groups, doas, and ssh_authorized_keys.
    • passwd and hashed_passwd contain an encrypted password hash, not a plain-text password. passwd is applied only when tiny-cloud creates the user, preserving the password of an account that already exists. hashed_passwd is applied to both new and existing accounts and takes precedence when both keys are present. lock_passwd defaults to true; when enabled, the account is locked after its password hash is set. Set it to false to permit password login. 🔥
  • ssh_authorized_keys — install SSH keys for the default user selected by user or users. 🗝️
  • groups — create additional groups. 🫶
  • bootcmd — run commands during the main phase before later package and file actions. ⏰
  • write_files — write files to disk. tiny-cloud supports path, content, permissions, owner, encoding, and append. Supported encodings are text/plain, base64, b64, gzip, gz, gz+base64, gzip+base64, gz+b64, and gzip+b64. 📝
  • ntp — enable and configure NTP. Supported keys are enabled and ntp_client. Recognized client values are busybox, chrony, and openntpd. 🕰️
  • package_update — when set to true, run apk update. 🔄
  • package_upgrade — when set to true, run apk upgrade. ⬆️
  • packages — install packages with apk add. 📦
  • runcmd — run commands during the final phase. 🏁

🌈 NOTES 🌈

The implementation is Alpine-focused. Package management and service control are performed with Alpine tools such as apk(8), rc-update(8), and rc-service(8).

For Alpine-specific extensions beyond this subset, see alpine-config(5). iykyk 🧚

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

A more complete example, and yes she ate:

#cloud-config
user:
  name: alpine
  shell: /bin/ash
ssh_authorized_keys:
  - ssh-ed25519 AAAA... user@example.com
groups:
  - wheel
package_update: true
packages:
  - curl
  - jq
write_files:
  - path: /etc/motd
    permissions: '0644'
    content: |
      tiny-cloud configured this host
runcmd:
  - echo ready >/var/tmp/cloud-ready

This example sets the default user, installs SSH keys, creates a group, installs packages, writes a file, and runs a final command. literally the whole personality of a cloud instance in one little YAML file 😭💖

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

alpine-config(5), tiny-cloud(8)

that's the whole page bestie, go configure something iconic 💅✨

love u, stay hydrated, and remember this is section 5 of the File Formats Manual, dated 2026-08-24 🍓🦋💜

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