To create flow runs in a local or remote execution environment, first connect with Prefect Cloud or a Prefect server as the backend API server. This involves:
  • Configuring the execution environment with the location of the API.
  • Authenticating with the API, either by logging in or providing a valid API key (Prefect Cloud only).

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Log into Prefect Cloud from a terminal

Configure a local execution environment to use Prefect Cloud as the API server for flow runs. You will “log in” to Prefect Cloud from a local environment where you want to run a flow.

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Steps

  1. Open a new terminal session.
  2. Install Prefect in the environment where you want to execute flow runs.
$ pip install -U prefect
  1. Use the prefect cloud login Prefect CLI command to log into Prefect Cloud from your environment.
$ prefect cloud login
The prefect cloud login command provides an interactive login experience. You can log in with either an API key or through a browser. 
$ prefect cloud login
? How would you like to authenticate? [Use arrows to move; enter to select]
> Log in with a web browser
    Paste an API key
Paste your authentication key:
? Which workspace would you like to use? [Use arrows to move; enter to select]
> prefect/terry-prefect-workspace
    g-gadflow/g-workspace
Authenticated with Prefect Cloud! Using workspace 'prefect/terry-prefect-workspace'.

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Change workspaces

To change which workspace to sync with, use the prefect cloud workspace set Prefect CLI command while logged in, passing the account handle and workspace name: 
$ prefect cloud workspace set --workspace "prefect/my-workspace"
If you don’t provide a workspace, you will need to select one. Workspace Settings also shows you the prefect cloud workspace set Prefect CLI command to sync a local execution environment with a given workspace. You may also use the prefect cloud login command with the --workspace or -w option to set the current workspace. 
$ prefect cloud login --workspace "prefect/my-workspace"

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Manually configure Prefect API settings

You can manually configure the PREFECT_API_URL setting to specify the Prefect Cloud API. For Prefect Cloud, configure the PREFECT_API_URL and PREFECT_API_KEY settings to authenticate with Prefect Cloud by using an account ID, workspace ID, and API key. 
$ prefect config set PREFECT_API_URL="https://api.prefect.cloud/api/accounts/[ACCOUNT-ID]/workspaces/[WORKSPACE-ID]"
$ prefect config set PREFECT_API_KEY="[API-KEY]"
When you’re in a Prefect Cloud workspace, you can copy the PREFECT_API_URL value directly from the page URL. This example configures PREFECT_API_URL and PREFECT_API_KEY in the default profile. You can use prefect profile CLI commands to create settings profiles for different configurations. For example, you can configure a “cloud” profile to use the Prefect Cloud API URL and API key; and another “local” profile for local development using a local Prefect API server started with prefect server start. See Settings for details.
Environment variablesYou can set PREFECT_API_URL and PREFECT_API_KEY just like any other environment variable. See Overriding defaults with environment variables for more information.

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Install requirements in execution environments

In local and remote execution environments, such as VMs and containers, ensure that you’ve installed any flow requirements or dependencies before creating a flow run.