dev-start

name	dev-start
description	Start the development server in background mode
context	main

Start the Turbo development server in background mode.

Arguments

Your args are: $ARGUMENTS

Supports --tunnel-hostname=<fqdn> to use a fixed tunnel domain instead of the auto-generated one.

Note: The web app automatically starts a Cloudflare tunnel during dev startup (issue #1726). This means VM0_API_URL is set automatically and webhooks work out of the box. The web app takes ~15 seconds longer to start than other packages due to tunnel setup.

Workflow

Step 1: Ensure Local Hosts Mapping

Ensure every local vm7.ai development domain resolves to 127.0.0.1 before running status checks or opening the app. The platform app calls https://api.vm7.ai:8443; if api.vm7.ai resolves outside the container while www.vm7.ai and app.vm7.ai resolve locally, the web/app services can look healthy while platform API calls hang.

Use sudo tee to update /etc/hosts; do not use sed -i because /etc/hosts is often a mounted file in devcontainers and atomic rename can fail with Device or resource busy.

VM7_DOMAINS="vm7.ai www.vm7.ai app.vm7.ai api.vm7.ai docs.vm7.ai platform.vm7.ai"

needs_hosts_update=0
for domain in $VM7_DOMAINS; do
  if ! getent hosts "$domain" | awk '{print $1}' | grep -qx "127.0.0.1"; then
    needs_hosts_update=1
  fi
done

if [ "$needs_hosts_update" -eq 1 ]; then
  tmp_hosts=$(mktemp)
  awk '
    /(^|[[:space:]])(vm7|www[.]vm7|app[.]vm7|api[.]vm7|docs[.]vm7|platform[.]vm7)[.]ai([[:space:]]|$)/ { next }
    { print }
  ' /etc/hosts > "$tmp_hosts"
  printf "127.0.0.1 %s\n" "$VM7_DOMAINS" >> "$tmp_hosts"
  sudo tee /etc/hosts < "$tmp_hosts" >/dev/null
  rm -f "$tmp_hosts"
fi

getent hosts api.vm7.ai www.vm7.ai app.vm7.ai docs.vm7.ai

If this command cannot update /etc/hosts because sudo is unavailable or prompts for credentials, report that blocker before starting browser work; otherwise API calls from the platform can time out silently.

Step 2: Pre-flight Check

Run the dev server status check. This verifies SSL certificates (regenerating if missing) and checks port accessibility:

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo" && pnpm dev:status

If all three services show running, the vm0 dev server is already up — display the output, skip the runner/prepare/vm0 dev steps, and still run the marketing startup step below so www.vm7.ai has a local backend. Otherwise, proceed to start the server.

Step 3: Start Runner in Background

Start the runner first using Bash tool with run_in_background: true parameter. The runner takes several minutes to initialize, so we start it early to overlap with the prepare step.

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo" && pnpm runner

This returns a task_id for monitoring.

Note on runner: The runner takes several minutes to initialize (cross-compile, upload, build rootfs/snapshots). The app works without it — only chat/agent interaction features require the runner. You will be notified when the runner background task completes.

Step 4: Start Marketing in Background

Start the independent vm0-marketing project using Bash tool with run_in_background: true parameter. This runs independently from runner, prepare.sh, and pnpm dev, so start it early and let it overlap with the rest of the workflow.

Use the sibling checkout if it exists at ../vm0-marketing; otherwise clone vm0-ai/vm0-marketing into /tmp/vm0-marketing. Find the first package.json directory, install dependencies there, sync env from the marketing repo root, and start its dev script on port 3042:

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
SIBLING_MARKETING_ROOT="$(cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/.." && pwd)/vm0-marketing"

if [ -d "$SIBLING_MARKETING_ROOT" ]; then
  MARKETING_ROOT="$SIBLING_MARKETING_ROOT"
else
  MARKETING_ROOT="/tmp/vm0-marketing"
  if [ ! -d "$MARKETING_ROOT/.git" ]; then
    rm -rf "$MARKETING_ROOT"
    gh repo clone vm0-ai/vm0-marketing "$MARKETING_ROOT"
  fi
fi

MARKETING_PACKAGE_JSON="$(find "$MARKETING_ROOT" -name package.json -not -path "*/node_modules/*" -not -path "*/.next/*" -not -path "*/dist/*" -print -quit)"
if [ -z "$MARKETING_PACKAGE_JSON" ]; then
  echo "No package.json found in $MARKETING_ROOT"
  exit 1
fi

MARKETING_DEV_DIR="$(dirname "$MARKETING_PACKAGE_JSON")"
cd "$MARKETING_DEV_DIR"
pnpm install
bash "$MARKETING_ROOT/scripts/sync-env.sh"
PORT=3042 pnpm dev 2>&1 | tee 

This returns a task_id for monitoring.

Step 5: Run prepare.sh

While the runner is initializing in the background, run prepare.sh to set up the environment (sync .env.local, install dependencies, run database migrations). This may take a few minutes — wait for it to complete:

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
cd "$PROJECT_ROOT" && bash -c 'set -o pipefail; bash scripts/prepare.sh 2>&1 | tee /tmp/prepare-output.log'

If prepare.sh fails

If the command above exits with a non-zero code, do the following before reporting the failure to the user:

1. Gather diagnostic info by running:

echo "HOSTNAME: $(bash "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/scripts/cn.sh")"
echo "BRANCH: $(git branch --show-current)"
echo "--- LAST 20 LINES ---"
tail -20 /tmp/prepare-output.log

2. Determine the failed step: inspect the output for db:migrate or Database migrations failed. If found, the failed step is db:migrate; otherwise, report it as prepare.sh.

3. Send a Slack notification to #flaky-test using the Slack MCP tool (slack_send_message) with the following message format:

🔴 Dev server prepare failed on `<hostname>` (branch: `<branch>`)

**Failed step:** <prepare.sh or db:migrate>
**Error snippet:**
\`\`\`
<last ~20 lines of /tmp/prepare-output.log>
\`\`\`

> ℹ️ This may be caused by FK constraints preventing migration on databases with real data.

4. Report the failure to the user as normal — do NOT silently swallow the error, and do NOT proceed to Step 4.

If prepare.sh succeeds

Proceed to Step 6 as normal. No Slack notification is sent.

Step 6: Start Dev Server in Background

After prepare.sh completes successfully, start the dev server using Bash tool with run_in_background: true parameter.

Important: Use tee to write output to a persistent log file so /dev-logs works even after context compaction. The log file is the primary way /dev-logs reads output.

If --tunnel-hostname=<fqdn> was provided in args, pass it as TUNNEL_HOSTNAME env var:

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo" && TUNNEL_HOSTNAME=<fqdn> pnpm dev 2>&1 | tee "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo/.dev-server.log"

Otherwise (default):

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo" && pnpm dev 2>&1 | tee "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo/.dev-server.log"

Save the dev server task_id to a local file for TaskOutput fallback:

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
echo "<dev-task_id>" > "$PROJECT_ROOT/turbo/.dev-task-id"

Step 7: Display Results

Once the server is confirmed running, display the URLs:

✅ Dev server started in background
🔧 Runner deployment started in background (takes several minutes)
🌐 Marketing dev server started in background

- Web:      https://www.vm7.ai:8443
- App:      https://app.vm7.ai:8443
- Docs:     https://docs.vm7.ai:8443
- Marketing backend: http://localhost:3042

The app is usable now. Chat/agent features will become available once the runner finishes initializing.

Next steps:
- Use `/dev-logs` to view server output
- Use `/dev-logs [pattern]` to filter logs (e.g., `/dev-logs error`)
- Use `/dev-stop` to stop the server

Notes

• Use TaskOutput with the task_ids from run_in_background to check runner, marketing, or dev server output
• This operation runs in main context so the background task persists throughout the conversation
• NEVER use nohup to start the server (e.g., nohup pnpm dev > /tmp/dev-server.log 2>&1 &). Always use the Bash tool's run_in_background: true parameter instead.