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Gruntwork Runbooks

open

runbooks open

Section titled “runbooks open”

This command is intended for consumers of Runbooks.

Use runbooks open to open a runbook in your browser and use it.

Usage

Section titled “Usage”
Terminal window
runbooks open <path-to-runbook> [flags]

Arguments

Section titled “Arguments”
  • <path-to-runbook> - Path to a directory containing the runbook.mdx file, or to the file itself.

Flags

Section titled “Flags”
  • --working-dir <path> - Base directory for script execution and file generation (default: current directory)
    • All relative paths are resolved from this directory
    • Can be absolute or relative to current directory
  • --working-dir-tmp - Use a temporary working directory (automatically cleaned up on exit)
    • Useful for isolated testing or sandboxed execution
    • Overrides --working-dir if both are specified
  • --output-path <path> - Directory where generated files will be written (default: generated)
    • Resolved relative to the working directory
  • --no-telemetry - Disable anonymous telemetry. Can also be set via RUNBOOKS_TELEMETRY_DISABLE=1 environment variable.

What it does

Section titled “What it does”

When you run runbooks open:

  1. Starts the Backend Server - Launches a Go-based HTTP server on port 7825
  2. Launches the Browser - Opens your default web browser to http://localhost:7825
  3. Serves the Frontend - The web UI connects to the backend API to process the runbook
  4. Keeps Running - The server continues running until you close the browser or press Ctrl+C

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

Port already in use: If port 7825 is already in use, you’ll see an error. Stop any other process using that port or modify the code to use a different port.

Browser doesn’t open: If the browser doesn’t open automatically, you can manually navigate to http://localhost:7825 after running the command.

Browser window with the runbook doesn’t open: Sometimes, your browser seems to launch, but you don’t see the Runbook. The most likely issue here is that your browser launched with multiple tabs and windows and your Runbooks tab is not visible. Either look through all your browser windows, or go directly to http://localhost:7825.

Runbook not found: Make sure the path points to a valid runbook.mdx file.