Pause and resume
Stop a resource, an environment, a project or a workspace and keep everything — and what happens when the platform pauses you
Pausing stops the running parts of something and keeps its data, configuration, hostnames and history. Resuming brings it back as it was. The verbs are the same at every scope.
pier pause apiOK Paused app "api"
→ [22:36:07] active
pier ls apps
NAME STATUS REPLICAS AUTOSCALE IMAGE PORT UPDATED
api paused 1/1 - zot.pier-registry.svc.cluster.local:5... 8080 just now
pier resume apiOK Resumed app "api"
→ [22:36:07] resumed
Scopes
| Command | Pauses |
|---|---|
pier pause api, pier pause api/canary, pier pause main, pier pause www | one resource or one target |
pier environments pause staging | every resource in the environment |
pier projects pause acme | every environment of the project |
pier workspaces pause | everything in the workspace |
A paused app keeps its hostname, which answers with an error page; a paused Postgres keeps
its data and stops accepting connections; a paused site is not served. Buckets and volumes
pause with their environment. A deploy into a paused target offers to resume it first
(--no-resume fails instead, for CI).
A pause requested with pier pause does not expire: it is recorded with the reason
user_paused, and only pier resume clears it. A paused app is not billed for compute;
its storage is billed.
When the platform pauses you
The platform pauses a whole workspace for three reasons. The reason is shown in the
console, in pier billing overview, and in an email:
| Reason | Trigger | Recovery window | Resumes when |
|---|---|---|---|
cap_hit | overage spend reached the workspace cap | never purged; held storage is billed | the cap is raised or the period rolls over |
payment_failed | an invoice is seven days past due | 30 days, then purged | the invoice is paid |
trial_expired | the trial's grant or its 14 days ran out | 7 days, then purged | a plan is chosen |
A system pause cannot be lifted with pier resume; it is resolved through billing.
pier events --all-projects --severity warn shows the enforcement events.
Removed resources
pier rm is a pause with a 30-day clock: the resource leaves the environment, its data is
kept, pier trash lists it, pier trash restore <type> <name> brings it back
(config-external until re-declared in pier.yaml), pier trash purge ends the window.
Concepts: trash.
See also
pier pause · pier resume ·
pier trash · Workspaces and billing