Guides

Keep a VM warm or pinned

A warm VM serves your next run without a cold boot, and a pinned VM stays until you delete it. Look at your VMs with vm:list and remove one with vm:delete.

1 · Declare it in task.yaml

Declare cardinality: many to reuse a VM between runs, and add residency: pinned to keep it until you delete it.

task.yaml

execution:
  cardinality: many     # one VM can serve many runs
  residency: pinned     # auto (default) = reaped when idle

2 · Run it and list your VMs

vm:list shows each live VM with its residency, state, age and idle time.

terminal

$ ignitify vm:listvm_id                                    deployment_id                         task_slug  preset     residency  state           age  idle---------------------------------------  ------------------------------------  ---------  ---------  ---------  --------------  ---  ----vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47  019fdec7-1d02-7a68-8f35-4b9c0e7d2a16  worker     std.small  pinned     pinned-standby  19s  12s

3 · Look at one VM

vm:get adds the boot time to the detail of one VM.

terminal

$ ignitify vm:get vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47VM Detailsvm_id            vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47deployment_id    019fdec7-1d02-7a68-8f35-4b9c0e7d2a16task_slug        workerpreset           std.smallresidency        pinnedstate            pinned-standbybooted_at        2026-10-14T19:00:18.689Zage              26sidle             19s

4 · Show only pinned VMs

--pinned lists the pins, and a ⚠ after the idle time marks a pin idle past the warning window, which is only a warning.

terminal

$ ignitify vm:list --pinnedvm_id                                    deployment_id                         task_slug  preset     residency  state           age  idle---------------------------------------  ------------------------------------  ---------  ---------  ---------  --------------  ---  ----vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47  019fdec7-1d02-7a68-8f35-4b9c0e7d2a16  worker     std.small  pinned     pinned-standby  19s  12s

5 · Delete a VM

A pinned VM needs --force to unlock the delete, and -y skips the question that --force does not.

terminal

$ ignitify vm:delete vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47 --force -yWill tear down VM vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47 (PINNED — --force given).VM deleted: vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47

terminal

$ ignitify vm:delete vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47Refusing to delete vm_019fdec7-3a10-7c52-9b84-6d2e1f0a8c47: this VM is PINNED (permanent standby, alive 0.0h).Deleting it is exactly what "permanent" protects against — re-run with --force if you mean it.