diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index dab3d12263..c97e9a196a 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -854,6 +854,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "opentelemetry",
  "postgres",
  "regex",
+ "reqwest",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "tar",
diff --git a/compute_tools/Cargo.toml b/compute_tools/Cargo.toml
index f8c3481f57..46b0e80896 100644
--- a/compute_tools/Cargo.toml
+++ b/compute_tools/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ regex.workspace = true
 serde.workspace = true
 serde_json.workspace = true
 tar.workspace = true
+reqwest = { workspace = true, features = ["json"] }
 tokio = { workspace = true, features = ["rt", "rt-multi-thread"] }
 tokio-postgres.workspace = true
 tracing.workspace = true
diff --git a/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs b/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs
index 49cf1cd347..a4e9262072 100644
--- a/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs
+++ b/compute_tools/src/bin/compute_ctl.rs
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let spec = matches.get_one::<String>("spec");
     let spec_path = matches.get_one::<String>("spec-path");
 
+    let compute_id = matches.get_one::<String>("compute-id");
+    let control_plane_uri = matches.get_one::<String>("control-plane-uri");
+
     // Try to use just 'postgres' if no path is provided
     let pgbin = matches.get_one::<String>("pgbin").unwrap();
 
@@ -77,8 +80,27 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
                 let path = Path::new(sp);
                 let file = File::open(path)?;
                 serde_json::from_reader(file)?
+            } else if let Some(id) = compute_id {
+                if let Some(cp_base) = control_plane_uri {
+                    let cp_uri = format!("{cp_base}/management/api/v1/{id}/spec");
+                    let jwt: String = match std::env::var("NEON_CONSOLE_JWT") {
+                        Ok(v) => v,
+                        Err(_) => "".to_string(),
+                    };
+
+                    reqwest::blocking::Client::new()
+                        .get(cp_uri)
+                        .header("Authorization", jwt)
+                        .send()?
+                        .json()?
+                } else {
+                    panic!(
+                        "must specify --control-plane-uri \"{:#?}\" and --compute-id \"{:#?}\"",
+                        control_plane_uri, compute_id
+                    );
+                }
             } else {
-                panic!("cluster spec should be provided via --spec or --spec-path argument");
+                panic!("compute spec should be provided via --spec or --spec-path argument");
             }
         }
     };
@@ -227,6 +249,18 @@ fn cli() -> clap::Command {
                 .long("spec-path")
                 .value_name("SPEC_PATH"),
         )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::new("compute-id")
+                .short('i')
+                .long("compute-id")
+                .value_name("COMPUTE_ID"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::new("control-plane-uri")
+                .short('p')
+                .long("control-plane-uri")
+                .value_name("CONTROL_PLANE"),
+        )
 }
 
 #[test]