How to run system commands in Replit

In your Replit workspace, find the Tools dock on the left sidebar. Click the Shell icon to open an interactive Linux terminal. If you do not see it, use the search bar at the top and type Shell. The Shell pane opens inside your workspace with a blinking cursor ready for commands. You can resize it by dragging the pane border, float it into a separate window from the three-dot menu, or open multiple Shell instances by clicking the plus icon next to the tab.

The Shell supports standard Linux commands. Use ls to list files, pwd to print your current directory, mkdir to create directories, cp and mv to copy and move files, and rm to delete them. Use cat to view file contents and head or tail for partial views. The command history is available with the up arrow key, and tab completion works for file names and commands.

1# List all files including hidden ones
2ls -la
3
4# Show current directory
5pwd
6
7# Create a new directory
8mkdir src/utils
9
10# View a file's contents
11cat .replit
12
13# Check disk usage
14du -sh .
15
16# Show running processes
17ps aux

Replit uses Nix to manage system-level tools beyond npm or pip packages. To add tools like htop, curl, wget, ffmpeg, or ImageMagick, edit the replit.nix file. Search for available packages at search.nixos.org/packages to find the correct name. After editing replit.nix, type exit in Shell to restart the environment and load new packages. You can also add quick packages directly in the .replit file under [nix] packages.

1# replit.nix example
2{ pkgs }: {
3  deps = [
4    pkgs.nodejs-20_x
5    pkgs.htop
6    pkgs.curl
7    pkgs.wget
8    pkgs.imagemagick
9  ];
10}
11
12# Alternative: add in .replit under [nix]
13# [nix]
14# packages = ["htop", "curl", "wget"]

Curl and wget let you interact with external APIs and download files directly from Shell. Use curl to test API endpoints, send POST requests, and check response headers. Use wget to download files. Both tools are pre-installed in most Replit environments. These are useful for testing your app's API endpoints, downloading configuration files, or verifying external service connectivity.

1# GET request to an API
2curl https://httpbin.org/get
3
4# POST request with JSON body
5curl -X POST https://httpbin.org/post \
6  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
7  -d '{"name": "test", "value": 42}'
8
9# Download a file
10wget https://example.com/data.csv
11
12# Test your own app's endpoint
13curl http://localhost:3000/api/health
14
15# Show response headers
16curl -I https://example.com

When a process hangs or your Repl becomes unresponsive, use Shell to diagnose and fix the problem. Run ps aux to see all running processes. Use kill followed by the process ID to stop a specific process. The most powerful recovery command is kill 1, which restarts the entire Repl environment including reloading Nix packages and environment variables. This is also required after adding new Secrets to make them available in Shell.

1# List all running processes
2ps aux
3
4# Kill a specific process by PID
5kill 12345
6
7# Force kill a stubborn process
8kill -9 12345
9
10# Restart the entire Repl environment
11kill 1
12
13# Check resource usage interactively
14htop

The Shell includes git, gh (GitHub CLI), and glab (GitLab CLI) for version control operations. While Replit has a visual Git pane, Shell gives you full control for advanced operations like cherry-picking, rebasing, and managing multiple remotes. For private repositories, store your GitHub personal access token in Tools → Secrets as GIT_URL and use it for push operations. For teams managing complex Git workflows on Replit, RapidDev provides guidance on branching strategies and CI/CD integration.

1# Initialize a repository
2git init
3
4# Stage and commit changes
5git add .
6git commit -m "Initial commit"
7
8# Check status and log
9git status
10git log --oneline -10
11
12# Push to GitHub (using token from Secrets)
13git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git
14git push -u origin main