trellis

name	trellis
description	Control the Trellis development environment - check service status, view logs, restart services, run workflows, and switch worktrees

Trellis Development Environment Control

Use trellis-ctl to interact with the running Trellis instance. It auto-discovers the API URL by walking up from the current directory looking for trellis.hjson. If server.public_url is set, it's used verbatim; otherwise the URL is built from server.host, server.port, and server.tls_cert/tls_key. Set server.public_url when bind address ≠ connect address — for example, binding to a Tailscale IP with a cert issued for the Tailscale hostname. In Trellis-managed terminal sessions, TRELLIS_API is set automatically (using the same resolution) and takes precedence over the config file. You can also pass -config <path> or set TRELLIS_CONFIG to point at a specific config file.

Important: Always use the -json flag for structured output that's easier to parse:

trellis-ctl -json status
trellis-ctl -json logs backend -n 50
trellis-ctl -json workflow list

Available Commands

Service Status

Check the status of all services or a specific service:

trellis-ctl status              # All services
trellis-ctl status backend      # Specific service

States: running, stopped, crashed, starting, stopping

Service Logs

View logs from a service or log viewer:

trellis-ctl logs backend           # Last 100 lines from service
trellis-ctl logs backend -n 50     # Last 50 lines
trellis-ctl logs backend -f        # Follow/stream logs
trellis-ctl logs -viewer nginx     # View log viewer (remote logs)
trellis-ctl logs -list             # List available log viewers

Service vs Log Viewer:

• trellis-ctl logs <service> - Local service logs. If the service has logging.parser configured, logs are parsed for filtering by level/field.
• trellis-ctl logs -viewer <name> - Remote log viewers (SSH, file, command sources). Always parsed.

Filtering Options

trellis-ctl logs backend -since 1h           # Last hour
trellis-ctl logs backend -since 30m          # Last 30 minutes
trellis-ctl logs backend -since 6:30am       # Clock time (today)
trellis-ctl logs backend -since 14:00        # 24-hour format
trellis-ctl logs backend -until 7:00am       # End time for range
trellis-ctl logs backend -level error        # Errors only
trellis-ctl logs backend -level warn+        # Warn and above
trellis-ctl logs backend -level warn,error   # Specific levels
trellis-ctl logs backend -grep "timeout"     # Pattern match
trellis-ctl logs backend -grep "(?i)error"   # Case-insensitive regex
trellis-ctl logs backend -field host=prod1   # Filter by field
trellis-ctl logs backend -field status=5*    # Wildcard field match

# Context lines around grep matches (like grep -B/-A/-C)
trellis-ctl logs backend -grep "error" -B 5  # 5 lines before each match
trellis-ctl logs backend -grep "error" -A 10 # 10 lines after each match
trellis-ctl logs backend -grep "error" -C 3  # 3 lines before and after

# Combined example: find "started" with context in a time window
trellis-ctl logs -viewer api-logs -grep "started" -B 10 -since 6:00am -until 7:00am

Output Formats

trellis-ctl logs backend -json               # JSON array
trellis-ctl logs backend -jsonl              # JSON Lines (one per line)
trellis-ctl logs backend -csv                # CSV with header
trellis-ctl logs backend -raw                # Original log lines
trellis-ctl logs backend -format '{{.timestamp}} {{.level}}: {{.message}}'  # Custom template

Statistics and Management

trellis-ctl logs backend -stats              # Show log statistics
trellis-ctl logs backend -clear              # Clear service log buffer
trellis-ctl logs backend -open               # Open in browser
trellis-ctl logs backend -url                # Show browser URL

When debugging crashes, look for:

• Panic traces (goroutine stack)
• Fatal errors
• The last error message before exit

Service Control

Start, stop, or restart services:

trellis-ctl start backend
trellis-ctl stop backend
trellis-ctl restart backend

Workflows

List, describe, and run workflows:

trellis-ctl workflow list              # List all workflows with descriptions
trellis-ctl workflow describe <id>     # Show workflow inputs and validation rules
trellis-ctl workflow run <id>          # Run a workflow (waits for completion)
trellis-ctl workflow run <id> --arg=value  # Run with input arguments
trellis-ctl workflow status <id>       # Check workflow status

Discovering and running workflows with inputs:

# See what inputs a workflow expects
trellis-ctl workflow describe find-email

# Output shows:
#   --msgid    Email message ID (optional)
#              Pattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9._@<>-]+$
#   --id       Database ID (optional)
#              Pattern: ^[0-9]+$
#   --date     Date to search (required)
#              Type: date (YYYY-MM-DD)

# Run with validated inputs
trellis-ctl workflow run find-email --date=2024-01-15 --id=12345

Workflow inputs are validated server-side against configured patterns and allowed values. Invalid inputs return an error without executing the workflow.

Worktrees

List and switch git worktrees:

trellis-ctl worktree list           # List all worktrees
trellis-ctl worktree activate main  # Switch to a worktree

Switching worktrees will:

1. Stop all services
2. Re-expand config templates with new paths
3. Restart all services

Events

View recent system events:

trellis-ctl events          # Last 50 events
trellis-ctl events -n 20    # Last 20 events

Notifications

Send notification events to alert the user:

trellis-ctl notify "Task completed"                      # Done notification (default)
trellis-ctl notify "Need API credentials" -type blocked  # Blocked - waiting for user
trellis-ctl notify "Build failed" -type error            # Error notification

When to notify:

• done - Task completed successfully, user can review the results
• blocked - Stuck and need user input to continue
• error - Something failed that needs attention

Users can subscribe to these events via WebSocket (/api/v1/events/ws?pattern=notify.*) or view them with trellis-ctl events.

Crash Reports

View crash reports that are automatically captured when services fail:

trellis-ctl crash list              # List all crash reports
trellis-ctl crash newest            # Get the most recent crash
trellis-ctl crash <id>              # Get a specific crash by ID
trellis-ctl crash delete <id>       # Delete a crash report
trellis-ctl crash clear             # Clear all crash reports

Each crash report contains:

• Service name and exit code
• Trace ID of the request that caused the crash (if detected)
• Worktree context (name, branch, path)
• Log entries from all services filtered by the trace ID
• Summary statistics (entry count by source and level)

The JSON output includes an entries array with parsed log entries:

{
  "id": "20260117-143201.234",
  "service": "backend",
  "exit_code": 2,
  "trace_id": "req-abc123",
  "entries": [
    {
      "timestamp": "2026-01-17T14:32:01Z",
      "source": "backend",
      "level": "error",
      "message": "panic: nil pointer dereference",
      "fields": {...},
      "raw": "..."
    }
  ]
}

Distributed Tracing

Two separate commands (note the hyphen difference):

• trace - Execute a new trace search
• trace-report - View/manage saved trace reports

Execute a Trace Search (trace)

trellis-ctl -json trace <id> <group>                # Search for ID in a trace group
trellis-ctl -json trace abc123 api-flow             # Example: search for "abc123"
trellis-ctl -json trace abc123 api-flow -since 1h   # Last hour only
trellis-ctl -json trace abc123 api-flow -since 10am -until 11am  # Time window

The JSON output includes an entries array with all matching log lines:

{
  "name": "trace-abc123-20260117-103045",
  "trace_id": "abc123",
  "status": "completed",
  "entries": [
    {
      "timestamp": "2026-01-17T10:30:01Z",
      "source": "nginx-logs",
      "level": "info",
      "message": "GET /api/groups/123 200",
      "fields": {"request_id": "abc123", "path": "/api/groups/123"},
      "raw": "..."
    }
  ]
}

View Saved Trace Reports (trace-report)

trellis-ctl -json trace-report <name>         # Get a saved report by name
trellis-ctl -json trace-report -list          # List all saved reports
trellis-ctl -json trace-report -groups        # List configured trace groups
trellis-ctl trace-report -delete <name>       # Delete a report

Time input formats: 1h, 30m (duration), 6:00am, 14:30 (clock time), 2025-01-10 (date), 2025-01-10 6:00am (date+time), today, yesterday, now

Date ranges are inclusive: When using a date without a time, start means beginning of day (00:00:00) and end means end of day (23:59:59). To search only one day, use the same date for both -since and -until.

Trace groups are configured in trellis.hjson under trace_groups, defining which log viewers to search together. Example:

trace_groups: [
  { name: "api-flow", log_viewers: ["nginx-logs", "api-logs", "db-logs"] }
]

Service Tracing (Dev Environment)

When services have logging.parser configured (directly or via logging_defaults), a services trace group is auto-generated that searches all service log buffers:

trellis-ctl -json trace "req-123" services -since 1h   # Search all dev service logs
trellis-ctl -json trace-report -groups                  # See the auto-generated "services" group

This requires no configuration — svc:<name> log viewers are created automatically from each service's in-memory ring buffer.

Common Workflows

After Making Code Changes

1. Build the code (your normal build process)
2. Check if service auto-restarted: trellis-ctl status
3. If crashed, check logs: trellis-ctl logs <service> -n 100

Debugging a Crash

1. Check service status: trellis-ctl status <service>
2. View crash report: trellis-ctl -json crash newest - includes trace ID and filtered logs
3. View recent logs: trellis-ctl logs <service> -n 200
4. Check AI context file (if configured) for crash details and trace info
5. Fix the issue and rebuild
6. Verify: trellis-ctl status <service>

Switching to a Different Branch

1. List worktrees: trellis-ctl worktree list
2. Activate: trellis-ctl worktree activate <name>
3. Wait for services to restart
4. Verify: trellis-ctl status

Debugging Across Dev Services

When a request touches multiple services locally:

# Search all service log buffers for a trace/request ID
trellis-ctl -json trace "req-abc123" services -since 1h

# The result shows the request flow across all services with parsers configured

Investigating a Production Error

When asked to investigate an error seen in production logs:

1. Run a trace to gather all related log entries:

   trellis-ctl -json trace <trace_id> <group> -since <time>
   

   Example: trellis-ctl -json trace XXXX-XXXX-12345 web -since 10am

2. Parse the JSON output - The trace returns entries with:

   • timestamp - When it occurred
   • source - Which log viewer (nginx, api, db, etc.)
   • level - Log level (error, warn, info)
   • message - The log message
   • fields - Parsed fields (request path, user ID, etc.)
   • raw - Original log line

3. Analyze the request flow - Entries are sorted by timestamp, showing the request path through the system. Look for:

   • The initial request (often from nginx/load balancer)
   • Application processing steps
   • Database queries
   • The error and where it occurred
   • Any context from surrounding log lines

4. Read the relevant source code - Use file paths and function names from the logs to find the code that generated the error.

5. Notify when done:

   trellis-ctl notify "Investigation complete - found the issue in handler.go:142"
   

Example investigation:

# Step 1: Run trace for the error around 10am
trellis-ctl -json trace req-abc123 web -since 9:30am -until 10:30am

# Step 2: Parse output, identify the error source
# Look for entries with level="error" and examine the request flow

# Step 3: Read the source files mentioned in the trace
# e.g., if trace shows error in /api/groups endpoint, read the handler

# Step 4: Notify the user
trellis-ctl notify "Found issue: group lookup fails when ID contains special chars"

Querying Production Data

When you need to fetch data from production databases to understand an issue:

1. Discover available workflows that can query production:

   trellis-ctl workflow list
   trellis-ctl workflow describe <workflow-id>
   

2. Run the workflow with validated inputs:

   trellis-ctl -json workflow run db-fetch --table=users --id=12345
   

Workflow inputs are validated against configured patterns and allowed values before execution, ensuring safe queries. For example, a workflow configured with:

• allowed_values: ["users", "groups", "messages"] for table
• pattern: "^[0-9]+$" for ID

Will reject attempts to query unauthorized tables or pass malformed IDs.

Example: Investigating a user issue

# 1. Run trace to find the error
trellis-ctl -json trace req-abc123 api-flow -since 1h

# 2. Trace shows user_id=12345 had an error - fetch the user record
trellis-ctl -json workflow run db-fetch --table=users --id=12345

# 3. Examine the returned JSON to understand the user's state
# 4. Read relevant source code to understand the bug
# 5. Notify with findings
trellis-ctl notify "User 12345 has invalid subscription_tier causing the error"