Quickstart

Run a background HTTP server, check that it is ready, and stop it when you're done. This walkthrough needs Python 3 and an available port 8000.

1. Install pitchfork

mise use -g pitchfork
pitchfork --version

If you don't use mise, install with cargo install pitchfork-cli --locked or choose a binary from the installation guide.

2. Start a daemon

Run this from a directory whose files you want to serve:

pitchfork run demo --port 8000 -- \
  python3 -u -m http.server 8000 --bind 127.0.0.1

demo is the name pitchfork uses to track this process. Everything after -- is the command to run. --port 8000 makes pitchfork wait for a TCP connection to succeed before returning. Python's -u makes log output appear promptly.

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser. The server keeps running after the command finishes, even if you close this terminal. Pitchfork starts its background supervisor automatically.

3. Check status and logs

pitchfork status demo
pitchfork logs demo --tail

Refresh the browser to produce a request log. Press Ctrl+C to leave the log viewer; the server stays running. Use pitchfork list to see all tracked and available daemons, or pitchfork tui for the interactive dashboard.

4. Stop and clean up

pitchfork stop demo
pitchfork clean --daemon demo

stop terminates the process. clean removes its stopped entry from the daemon list; it does not delete logs or configuration.

Next: save a project configuration

One-off commands are useful for trying things out. A pitchfork.toml makes your services repeatable and shareable. Continue with your first project to add dependencies, readiness checks, and project-scoped commands.

If this example fails, check python3 --version, choose another port in both places in the command, or see troubleshooting.