Start the Zonai server and open an interactive terminal UI (TUI) for development.
zonai dev [flags]
--host and --port use the same precedence as zonai serve (CLI →
zonai.yaml → defaults). See Server Binding.
zonai dev is the go-to command during development. It runs the server and wraps it in a TUI that provides live feedback and shortcuts for common tasks.
While developing Flutter/Dart clients, use zonai_client db.listen against the local server — live queries are available in dev too. See Streaming.
TUI Features#
- Schema viewer — browse defined tables and their columns
- Operations tester — test CRUD operations against the running database
- Migration helper — generate and apply schema migrations without leaving the terminal
- Admin management — create and manage admin accounts
- Run cron job — trigger a cron job immediately by name (
j) - Worker status — see which workers are running and restart them on demand
Project Initialization#
If zonai.yaml does not exist in the current directory, zonai dev prompts you to create one, guiding you through selecting source paths and initial settings.
zonai dev vs zonai serve#
zonai dev | zonai serve | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs the HTTP server | ✓ | ✓ |
| Interactive TUI | ✓ | — |
| Migration helpers | ✓ | auto-apply on startup only |
| Schema viewer | ✓ | — |
Use zonai serve when you want the server without the TUI — for example, to get a closer-to-production environment during development, or to run in CI. Use zonai serve --release for production.