---
title: "alis operations"
url: "https://docs.alisx.com/reference/cli/operations/"
---
# alis operations

Inspect and wait on the long-running operations started by `alis define`, `alis build`, `alis deploy` and the block commands.

## Synopsis

```bash
alis operations cancel <operation> [flags]
alis operations describe <operation> [flags]
alis operations list [flags]
alis operations wait <operation> [flags]
```

Aliases: `operations`, `operation`, `op`.

## Description

Operation names (`operations/<id>`) are printed by the starting commands when run with `--async`, and by the final stderr event of an interrupted or timed-out wait. Interrupts never cancel the server-side operation; re-attach with `wait`.

## Subcommands

### alis operations cancel

Cancel only a build execution. Deployment cancellation is unsupported. A successful result requires `stopped: true`; do not replace work while `stopped` is false.

```bash
alis operations cancel <operation> [flags]
```

| Flag | Type | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| `--package <id>` | string | | Package ID when the operation is not recorded locally. |

### alis operations describe

Show the current state of an operation: a one-shot poll.

```bash
alis operations describe <operation> [flags]
```

No flags beyond the global flags.

### alis operations list

List recently started long-running operations from the local record this CLI keeps on this machine; operations started elsewhere do not appear. Newest first. With `--active`, each operation is polled and running or unreadable ones are printed.

```bash
alis operations list [flags]
```

| Flag | Type | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| `--active` | bool | false | Poll each operation and print running or unreadable ones. |
| `--limit <n>` | int | `20` | Maximum operations to print. |

### alis operations wait

Re-attach to a running operation and stream its progress to completion, using the same output contract as `alis define`: result on stdout, progress on stderr, non-zero exit on failure.

```bash
alis operations wait <operation> [flags]
```

| Flag | Type | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| `--poll-interval <duration>` | duration | `2s` | How often to poll the operation. |
| `--timeout <duration>` | duration | `0` | Give up waiting after this duration (0 = wait indefinitely). |

## Examples

```bash title="Terminal"
alis build acme.shop.orders.v1 --json --branch main --async
alis operations wait operations/<id> --json
alis operations describe operations/<id> --json
alis operations list --active --json
alis operations cancel operations/<id> --json
```

## JSON output

`wait` and `describe` return the operation with `schemaVersion`, `name`, `done`, `status`, `version`, `notes`, `logsUri` and, on failure, `error`. `list` returns `operations[]` with `name`, `type`, `target`, `startedAt` and `next`; with `--active`, unreadable rows keep `status: "unknown"` and `inspectionError`. See [Output contract](https://docs.alisx.com/reference/cli/output-contract.md).