setup

name	setup
description	Set up a reef server with example services. Use when bootstrapping a new reef instance or adding fleet coordination services to an existing one.

Setup Reef

Reef ships with core infrastructure services in services/ (including vm-tree, signals, swarm, lieutenant, usage, probe, docs, installer, services, store, cron, ui). Optional example services live in examples/services/ and can be copied into services/ if you want them.

Available Example Services

Service	What it does
board	Task tracking with review workflow, notes, artifacts, priority bumps
feed	Activity event stream with SSE, auto-publishes from board events
log	Append-only work log with time-range queries
journal	Personal narrative log with mood/vibe tagging
commits	VM snapshot ledger for tracking golden images
reports	Markdown reports with title, author, tags
usage	Cost & token tracking with per-agent summaries (depends on feed)
updater	Auto-update reef from npm

Dependencies

Some services depend on others. Install dependencies first:

• usage depends on feed
• ui is a core service; works best with board and feed (for panels)

Install All Example Services

To install everything:

cp -r examples/services/feed services/feed
cp -r examples/services/board services/board
cp -r examples/services/log services/log
cp -r examples/services/journal services/journal
cp -r examples/services/commits services/commits
cp -r examples/services/reports services/reports
cp -r examples/services/usage services/usage
cp -r examples/services/updater services/updater

Then restart or reload:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/services/reload -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

Install a Subset

Pick what you need. A minimal coordination setup:

# Task tracking + activity feed
cp -r examples/services/feed services/feed
cp -r examples/services/board services/board

# Work log
cp -r examples/services/log services/log

# Web dashboard is built-in at services/ui — no copy needed

Reload:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/services/reload -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

Fix Import Paths

The example services import types from ../src/core/types.js (relative to examples/services/). After copying to services/, the import path resolves to services/src/core/types.js which doesn't exist.

You must fix the imports in each copied service. Change:

// Before (in examples/services/)
import type { ServiceModule } from "../src/core/types.js";

// After (in services/)
import type { ServiceModule } from "../../src/core/types.js";

Run this to fix all imports at once after copying:

find services/ -name '*.ts' -exec sed -i '' 's|from "../src/core/|from "../../src/core/|g' {} +
find services/ -name '*.ts' -exec sed -i '' 's|from "\.\./src/core/|from "../../src/core/|g' {} +

On Linux (no -i ''):

find services/ -name '*.ts' -exec sed -i 's|from "../src/core/|from "../../src/core/|g' {} +

Verify

After copying and fixing imports:

# Check the server starts
bun run start

# Or check health
curl http://localhost:3000/health

The health endpoint lists all loaded services. Every service you copied should appear.

Runtime Install (Alternative)

Instead of copying, you can use the installer to symlink from examples:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/installer/install \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"source": "./examples/services/board"}'

This creates a symlink — changes to the example source are reflected immediately. Good for development, but the import path issue still applies if examples use relative paths to src/core/.

Checklist

• Copied the services you need from examples/services/ to services/
• Installed dependencies first (feed before usage)
• Fixed import paths (../src/core/ → ../../src/core/)
• Server starts without errors
• All copied services appear in GET /health
• GET /docs shows routes for each new service