Start on Boot

Configure pitchfork to start automatically when your system boots.

Enable Boot Start

pitchfork boot enable

This registers pitchfork to start automatically when you log in.

To register a system-level entry (starts for all users, requires root):

sudo pitchfork boot enable

Disable Boot Start

pitchfork boot disable

Check Status

pitchfork boot status

User-level vs System-level

The registration mode is determined automatically based on whether the command runs as root:

	User-level	System-level (sudo)
macOS	~/Library/LaunchAgents/pitchfork.plist	/Library/LaunchAgents/pitchfork.plist
Linux	~/.config/systemd/user/pitchfork.service	/etc/systemd/system/pitchfork.service

Running the Supervisor as Root

If you need the supervisor to run as root (e.g. to manage system-level processes), use sudo pitchfork boot enable.

However, if you still want state files, IPC sockets and daemon processes to belong to a specific user rather than root, set supervisor.user in your global config (/etc/pitchfork/config.toml or ~/.config/pitchfork/config.toml):

[supervisor]
user = "alice"

With this setting, the supervisor process runs as root but spawns daemons and writes state under the specified user's home directory.

Configure Boot Daemons

Add boot_start = true to daemons you want to start at boot. These should be in your global config file (~/.config/pitchfork/config.toml):

[daemons.postgres]
run = "postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres"
boot_start = true

[daemons.redis]
run = "redis-server"
boot_start = true

[daemons.my-app]
run = "npm start"
boot_start = false  # Won't start at boot

How It Works

Platform	User-level method	System-level method
macOS	LaunchAgents (user)	LaunchAgents (system)
Linux	systemd user service	systemd system service

When boot start is enabled:

1. System login (user-level) or system startup (system-level) triggers the pitchfork supervisor
2. Supervisor starts all daemons with boot_start = true
3. Daemons run in the background

Typical Setup

1. Enable boot start:

   pitchfork boot enable

2. Add daemons to global config (~/.config/pitchfork/config.toml):

   [daemons.postgres]
   run = "postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres"
   boot_start = true
   ready_output = "ready to accept connections"

3. Verify it's working:

   pitchfork boot status
   pitchfork list