Open a terminal and replace username with your CLI-Games username:

ssh [email protected]

Sign in with your existing account password. Your email must be verified. If you use Apple sign-in and have no account password, use the password recovery flow on the website terminal first.

New here? Create and verify an account directly from your terminal:

ssh [email protected]

Follow the email, username, password and verification-code prompts. If you disconnect before finishing verification, reconnect as +verify. Passwords and codes are hidden as you type.

The connection banner shows signup, verification and help addresses before sign-in. If login ends with Permission denied, check your username, password and email verification, or reconnect using the signup command to create an account.

After signing in, use ssh-key add 'your-public-key' to enable public-key login. Keep the private key on your own device. SSH access to these account services is free.

chess [daily|games|resume <id>|challenge <user>|invites|accept <id>|decline <id>|help]: Play daily puzzles and correspondence chess. Moves are saved to your account; resume on SSH or the website. At the board: moves, board, flip, hint, resign confirm, quit.
daily chess: Play or resume today's chess puzzle.
onlinegames: List your correspondence chess games and whose turn it is.
play <id>: Resume the correspondence chess game named in a challenge letter.
wiki [slug | -k words]: Browse or search published wiki articles. Space and arrows scroll; / searches; q closes the page.
news [slug | -k words]: Read the latest published articles. blog is an alias.
blog [slug | -k words]: Browse the news archive.
wire [articles [slug]]: Read the honeypot activity digest or published Wire field reports.
leaderboard <game> [mode] [page]: Read the global game leaderboard and your rank.
keys: Open your earned keyring, achievement descriptions and streak totals.
achievements: Open your keyring.
friends [page | activity]: List friends or read their recent public activity.
activity: Read recent community activity.
ed [file]: Edit a saved home file. a inserts text, . ends input, ,p prints, w saves, q quits. Ctrl-C retains the buffer in this connection; ed resumes it.
less <file>: Page through a saved text file with scrolling and literal search.
more <file>: Open a saved text file in the pager.
irc [room]: List chat rooms or join one. New messages appear automatically; /quit leaves, /join switches rooms, /help lists commands.
chat [room]: List or join an IRC room.
tictactoe [new]: Play a practice game against the computer. Choose 1-9 or a1-c3; again starts over. The board lasts for this SSH connection.
ssh-key [list | add '<public key>' [label] | remove <number>]: Manage public keys for account login. Add only the public key; keep the private key on your own device. Removing a key revokes connections authenticated with it.
help [command]: List available commands
pwd [-P|-L]: Print the current directory. SSH follows physical paths.
ls [-alhFd1A] [path ...]: List saved home files. -a includes hidden entries; -l shows metadata; -h uses readable sizes; -F marks file types; -d lists the directory itself.
cd [directory|-]: Change directory. With no argument, return home; cd - returns to the previous directory.
cat <file> [file ...]: Print saved text files. Reads are limited to 32 KiB per file and 48 KiB per command.
echo [-n] [text ...]: Print text; -n omits the final newline. Quote text containing shell punctuation.
man [command | -k words]: Read SSH command help or browse published site manuals. Some site manual features require the website.
whoami: Show your account name
mail [inbox|saved] [page]: List your inbox or archive; mail read <number> opens a message
message [user] ['<subject>' '<body>']: Compose account mail. Subject: 100 characters; body: 1000. Failed sends stay editable. Ctrl-C keeps a draft for this connection; message resumes it; message --discard removes it.
reply <number> ['<body>']: Reply to a message from the last mail listing. Omit the body to compose interactively.
profile [username]: Read an account profile
config [theme|shell] [value]: Read or change your website appearance preferences
env: Read your saved environment variables
banner: Print the CLI-Games ASCII banner
date: Show the current UTC time
clear: Clear this terminal screen
exit: Close this connection

Use arrow keys for command history and Tab for command names and file paths. Type message username to compose interactively. Failed sends leave your text ready to edit. Ctrl-C keeps the draft; type message to resume it in this connection.

Play the daily chess puzzle with daily chess, or resume correspondence games with play game-id. Moves follow your account between SSH and the website; use board to refresh a position changed elsewhere. Use ed filename to edit saved home files and irc to find a chat room. Computer chess is unavailable here; try tictactoe for a computer opponent. Appearance settings change the website; your local terminal controls the SSH display.

Mail drafts, editor buffers and tic-tac-toe boards stay in this connection. Save your work before disconnecting. Scripts, host programs and file transfer are unavailable.

Connections close after 15 minutes without input or two hours total. Reconnect to continue. Up to two simultaneous SSH connections are available per account.