serve

runbooks serve

This command is intended for developers of Runbooks.

Use runbooks serve to start the backend API server without starting the frontend server or opening the browser.

Usage

runbooks serve <path-to-runbook> [flags]

Arguments

• <path-to-runbook> - Path to a directory containing the runbook.mdx file, or to the file itself.

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

When you run runbooks serve:

1. Starts the Backend Server - Launches a Go-based HTTP server on port 7825
2. Serves the API - Provides REST endpoints for the frontend to call
3. Does NOT Open Browser - You must manually navigate to http://localhost:7825 or run the frontend separately

Development workflow

Here’s a typical development workflow:

1. Start the backend:

   runbooks serve testdata/demo-runbook

   Or if you want to easily re-compile the backend:

   go run main.go serve testdata/demo-runbook

2. In another terminal, start the frontend:

   cd web
   bun dev

3. Open your browser to http://localhost:5173 (Vite’s port)

4. Make changes to:

   • React code in /web/src - hot reloads automatically
   • Go code - restart the serve command
   • Runbook files - refresh the browser