Bates

A local multi-application development server.

There’s support for running multiple services for handling things like CSS preprocessors and background jobs (similar to Foreman). There’s also built-in support for managing dependencies using asdf, loading environment variables with direnv, and running per-app instances of PostgreSQL.

Setup

Install Caddy

brew install caddy

Configure DNS resolver

Create a resolver file so .test domains resolve to localhost:

sudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" > /etc/resolver/test'

Trust the Caddy CA

Caddy automatically generates SSL certificates for local domains. Trust its root CA so browsers accept the certificates:

caddy trust

Build and Run

Bates ships two binaries: batesd (the server, a Mix release) and bates (a thin escript client for control commands). From source/:

mix deps.get
mix escript.build               # produces source/bates (the CLI)
MIX_ENV=prod mix release batesd # produces source/_build/prod/rel/batesd/

Run the daemon in the foreground:

_build/prod/rel/batesd/bin/batesd

Pass --config <path> to override the default config location (~/.config/bates/config.toml). Ctrl-C shuts the daemon down.

The bates escript talks to the running daemon via the JSON API. With bates and batesd both on $PATH:

bates status
bates env myapp

Configuration

The configuration file is defined in TOML format.

[test_server]
root = "/apps/test_server"
command = "rails server -p $PORT"
addons = ["postgresql"]
middleware = ["direnv"]

The command will have the $PORT placeholder replaced with a dynamically assigned port at startup. A port may be manually specified via the port key, instead.

Multiple services are supported, as well.

[multi_service_app]
root = "/apps/multi_service_app"
middleware = ["direnv"]

  [multi_service_app.services.web]
  hostname = true
  command = "bin/rails server"

  [multi_service_app.services.css]
  command = "bin/rails tailwindcss:watch[always]"