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CLI Reference — webda

The webda CLI launcher (packages/core/lib/bin/launcher.js) starts and manages a Webda application at runtime. It must be run from a directory containing a webda.config.json with @webda/core installed in node_modules.

Commands overview​

webda <command> [options]

Commands:
  webda serve      Start the HTTP server
  webda openapi    Export the OpenAPI definition
  webda debug      Start dev server with debug dashboard
  webda build      Generate protobuf definition from operations
  webda post       Post operations    (from blog-system: model-specific operations)
  webda user       User operations
  webda publisher  Publisher operations
  webda testbean   TestBean operations

Options:
  -w, --watch    Watch for changes, recompile and restart
  --service      Filter command to specific service(s), comma-separated
  --help         Show help

Note: Model-specific operation commands (like post, user) are dynamically generated from the models and their @Operation() methods registered in the current project.

webda serve​

Starts the application HTTP server in production mode.

webda serve
webda serve --port 8080 --bind 0.0.0.0
webda serve --watch   # restart on file changes (requires @webda/compiler)
FlagDescription
--port <n>Override the HTTP port
--bind <host>Bind address (default: 0.0.0.0)
-w, --watchWatch mode with auto-restart

webda debug​

Starts the application in development mode with the debug dashboard enabled. The debug dashboard provides a web UI for inspecting running services, requests, logs, and metrics.

webda debug

The debug server starts on port 18080 by default (configured in HttpServer.port).

webda openapi​

Exports the generated OpenAPI 3.0 specification to stdout or a file.

# Print to stdout
webda openapi

# Write to a file
webda openapi --output ./openapi.json

# Include hidden routes
webda openapi --includeHidden --output ./openapi-full.json
FlagDescription
-o, --output <file>Write to file instead of stdout
--includeHiddenInclude routes marked as hidden

webda build​

Generates protobuf definitions from model operations (for gRPC transport):

webda build

Model operation commands​

For each model with @Operation() methods, the launcher generates a CLI subcommand. For example, in the blog-system:

webda user login --email alice@example.com --password secret
webda post publish --slug hello-world --destination twitter
webda publisher publishPost --slug hello-world

These commands invoke the corresponding @Operation() static or instance methods directly from the CLI, without starting the HTTP server.

Global options​

FlagDescription
--versionShow version number
-w, --watchWatch for changes, recompile and restart
--service <names>Filter command to specific service(s), comma-separated
--helpShow help

Verify​

# Run from the blog-system project
cd sample-apps/blog-system

node ../../packages/core/lib/bin/launcher.js --help

Output:

webda <command> [options]

Commands:
  webda serve      Start the HTTP server
  webda openapi    Export the OpenAPI definition
  webda debug      Start dev server with debug dashboard
  webda build      Generate protobuf definition from operations
  webda post       Post operations
  webda user       User operations
  webda publisher  Publisher operations
  webda testbean   TestBean operations

Options:
      --version  Show version number                                   [boolean]
  -w, --watch    Watch for changes, recompile and restart (requires
                 @webda/compiler)                     [boolean] [default: false]
      --service  Filter command to specific service(s), comma-separated [string]
      --help     Show help                                             [boolean]

See also​