Oracle Cloud Local Dev Loop

Overview

The OCI web console is slow, hard to navigate, and requires dozens of clicks for common operations. A local dev workflow using the OCI CLI and Python SDK replaces the console for everything: listing resources, launching instances, managing object storage, and checking service health. Profile switching lets you target dev/staging/prod from the same terminal.

Purpose: Set up a complete local OCI development environment with CLI profiles, shell aliases, environment variable management, and common workflow scripts that eliminate the need for the web console.

Prerequisites

• Completed

  oraclecloud-install-auth

  — valid

  ~/.oci/config

  with at least one profile
• Python 3.8+ with

  pip install oci oci-cli

• Bash or Zsh shell
• OCIDs for your compartments (Governance > Compartments in the Console — last time you need it)

Instructions

Step 1: Install and Verify the OCI CLI

pip install oci-cli

# Verify installation
oci --version

# Quick connectivity test
oci iam region list --output table

Step 2: Set Up Multiple Profiles

Edit

~/.oci/config

[DEFAULT]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..aaaa_YOUR_USER
fingerprint=ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaa_PROD_TENANCY
region=us-ashburn-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem

[dev]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..aaaa_YOUR_USER
fingerprint=ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaa_DEV_TENANCY
region=us-phoenix-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key_dev.pem

[staging]
user=ocid1.user.oc1..aaaa_YOUR_USER
fingerprint=12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef
tenancy=ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaa_STAGING_TENANCY
region=eu-frankfurt-1
key_file=~/.oci/oci_api_key_staging.pem

Switch profiles with the

--profile

OCI_CLI_PROFILE

# CLI flag
oci compute instance list --compartment-id <OCID> --profile dev

# Environment variable (applies to all commands in session)
export OCI_CLI_PROFILE=dev
oci compute instance list --compartment-id <OCID>

Step 3: Environment Variables and .env File

Create a project

.env

# .env — OCI project configuration (NEVER commit this file)
OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID="ocid1.compartment.oc1..aaaa_YOUR_COMPARTMENT"
OCI_TENANCY_ID="ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaa_YOUR_TENANCY"
OCI_REGION="us-ashburn-1"
OCI_CLI_PROFILE="DEFAULT"

# Add to .gitignore
echo ".env" >> .gitignore

# Source in your shell
source .env

Step 4: Shell Aliases for Common Operations

Add these to your

~/.bashrc

~/.zshrc

# --- OCI Shell Aliases ---

# Profile switching
alias oci-dev='export OCI_CLI_PROFILE=dev && echo "Switched to dev"'
alias oci-staging='export OCI_CLI_PROFILE=staging && echo "Switched to staging"'
alias oci-prod='export OCI_CLI_PROFILE=DEFAULT && echo "Switched to prod"'

# Compute
alias oci-instances='oci compute instance list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID --output table --query "data[*].{Name:\"display-name\",State:\"lifecycle-state\",Shape:shape,OCID:id}"'
alias oci-running='oci compute instance list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID --lifecycle-state RUNNING --output table'

# Object Storage
alias oci-buckets='oci os bucket list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID --output table --query "data[*].{Name:name,Created:\"time-created\"}"'

# Networking
alias oci-vcns='oci network vcn list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID --output table'
alias oci-subnets='oci network subnet list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID --output table'

# IAM
alias oci-whoami='oci iam user get --user-id $(grep ^user ~/.oci/config | head -1 | cut -d= -f2) --query "data.{Name:name,Email:email}" --output table'

# Health check
alias oci-health='oci iam region list --output table && echo "OCI connectivity OK"'

Step 5: Common CLI Workflows

List and filter resources with JMESPath queries:

# Instances by shape
oci compute instance list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID \
  --query "data[?shape=='VM.Standard.A1.Flex'].{Name:\"display-name\",State:\"lifecycle-state\"}" \
  --output table

# Buckets with size (requires additional call per bucket)
oci os bucket list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID \
  --query "data[*].name" --raw-output

# Find an image by name
oci compute image list --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID \
  --query "data[?contains(\"display-name\", 'Oracle-Linux-8')].{Name:\"display-name\",ID:id}" \
  --output table --limit 5

Instance lifecycle from CLI:

# Launch instance
oci compute instance launch \
  --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID \
  --availability-domain "Uocm:US-ASHBURN-AD-1" \
  --shape "VM.Standard.E4.Flex" \
  --shape-config '{"ocpus": 1, "memoryInGBs": 8}' \
  --display-name "dev-instance" \
  --image-id <IMAGE_OCID> \
  --subnet-id <SUBNET_OCID> \
  --ssh-authorized-keys-file ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

# Stop / start / terminate
oci compute instance action --instance-id <OCID> --action STOP
oci compute instance action --instance-id <OCID> --action START
oci compute instance terminate --instance-id <OCID> --force

Object storage operations:

# Upload a file
oci os object put --bucket-name my-bucket --file ./data.csv --name data/input.csv

# Download a file
oci os object get --bucket-name my-bucket --name data/input.csv --file ./downloaded.csv

# List objects with prefix
oci os object list --bucket-name my-bucket --prefix "data/" \
  --query "data[*].{Name:name,Size:size}" --output table

# Bulk upload a directory
oci os object bulk-upload --bucket-name my-bucket --src-dir ./upload/ --overwrite

Step 6: Python SDK Local Dev Script

Create a reusable dev helper:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""oci_dev.py — Local OCI development helper."""

import oci
import os
import sys

def get_config(profile="DEFAULT"):
    """Load OCI config with environment variable overrides."""
    config = oci.config.from_file("~/.oci/config", profile_name=profile)
    # Allow env var override for compartment
    config["compartment_id"] = os.environ.get(
        "OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID", config.get("tenancy")
    )
    oci.config.validate_config(config)
    return config

def list_instances(config):
    compute = oci.core.ComputeClient(config, timeout=(10, 30))
    instances = compute.list_instances(
        compartment_id=config["compartment_id"]
    ).data
    for inst in instances:
        print(f"{inst.display_name:<30} {inst.lifecycle_state:<12} {inst.shape}")
    return instances

def list_buckets(config):
    os_client = oci.object_storage.ObjectStorageClient(config, timeout=(10, 30))
    namespace = os_client.get_namespace().data
    buckets = os_client.list_buckets(
        namespace_name=namespace,
        compartment_id=config["compartment_id"]
    ).data
    for b in buckets:
        print(f"{b.name:<40} {b.time_created}")
    return buckets

def health_check(config):
    identity = oci.identity.IdentityClient(config, timeout=(5, 15))
    user = identity.get_user(config["user"]).data
    regions = identity.list_regions().data
    print(f"User: {user.name}")
    print(f"Regions: {len(regions)} available")
    print("Status: OK")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    profile = os.environ.get("OCI_CLI_PROFILE", "DEFAULT")
    cfg = get_config(profile)

    cmd = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "health"
    if cmd == "instances":
        list_instances(cfg)
    elif cmd == "buckets":
        list_buckets(cfg)
    elif cmd == "health":
        health_check(cfg)
    else:
        print(f"Usage: python oci_dev.py [instances|buckets|health]")

# Usage
python oci_dev.py health
python oci_dev.py instances
OCI_CLI_PROFILE=dev python oci_dev.py buckets

Step 7: Project Structure

my-oci-project/
├── .env                    # OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID, OCI_REGION, OCI_CLI_PROFILE
├── .gitignore              # .env, *.pem, ~/.oci/
├── oci_dev.py              # Dev helper script (Step 6)
├── src/
│   └── oci_client.py       # Singleton client (see oraclecloud-sdk-patterns)
├── scripts/
│   ├── setup.sh            # Install oci + oci-cli + source .env
│   └── teardown.sh         # Terminate dev resources
└── tests/
    └── test_oci.py         # Unit tests with mocked OCI responses

Output

Successful setup produces:

• OCI CLI installed and verified with

  oci iam region list

• Multi-profile

  ~/.oci/config

  for dev/staging/prod switching
• Shell aliases for common OCI operations (instances, buckets, health)
• A reusable Python dev helper script for listing resources and health checks
• Environment variable management via

  .env

  for project-specific OCIDs

Error Handling

OCI_CLI_PROFILE

OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID

~/.oci/config

oraclecloud-install-auth

pip install oci-cli

--retry-strategy default

Examples

One-liner resource summary:

echo "=== OCI Status ===" && \
oci-health && \
echo "Instances:" && oci-instances && \
echo "Buckets:" && oci-buckets

Switch profile and list resources in one command:

OCI_CLI_PROFILE=dev oci compute instance list \
  --compartment-id $OCI_COMPARTMENT_ID --output table

Resources

• OCI CLI Reference — full command reference and configuration guide
• OCI CLI Configuration — config file format and profiles
• OCI Python SDK Reference — API documentation for all service clients
• OCI API Reference — REST API endpoints and schemas
• OCI Terraform Provider — infrastructure as code alternative
• OCI Status — service health dashboard

Next Steps

With your local dev loop set up, see

oraclecloud-sdk-patterns

oraclecloud-common-errors