CLI Commands

Launchpad provides several commands to manage your media installations. Each command can be run using npx launchpad <command> or just launchpad <command> if installed globally.

Start Command

launchpad start [options]

The start command launches Launchpad in persistent mode, which opens an IPC socket allowing subsequent CLI commands to connect to the running controller instance. This enables:

• Starting a long-running controller that manages both content and monitor subsystems
• Running background processes with optional detached mode
• Executing subsequent commands (content, monitor, status) via IPC without redundant initialization

Options

Option	Description
-d, --detach	Run the controller in the background (detached mode)

Usage Examples

Start in foreground (useful for development/debugging):

launchpad start
# or
launchpad start -v # with verbose logging
launchpad start -vv # with verbose + debug logging

Start in background:

launchpad start --detach
# or
launchpad start -d

Once started, you can use other commands to interact with the running controller via IPC.

Stop Command

launchpad stop [options]

The stop command gracefully shuts down the running Launchpad controller:

• Sends graceful shutdown signal via IPC
• Falls back to SIGTERM if IPC fails
• Force kills (SIGKILL) as last resort if the process doesn't respond
• Cleans up the PID file

For compatibility, if the controller is not running but a monitor process exists, it attempts to stop the monitor process.

Status Command

launchpad status [options]

The status command queries the persistent controller for its current state via IPC:

• Shows controller uptime
• Displays monitor connection status
• Lists all running apps with their status and PID
• Shows content fetch status and last fetch time

Output Example

Launchpad Status:
  Uptime: 2h 15m

Monitor:
  Connected: Yes
  PM2 Version: 5.3.0

Apps:
  ● my-app: online (PID: 12345)
  ○ other-app: stopped

Content:
  Last Fetch: 2025-10-21T10:30:00.000Z
  In Progress: No

Content Command

launchpad content [options]

The content command runs a content fetch operation:

• If a controller is already running (via launchpad start), it sends the command via IPC
• If no controller is running, it starts an ephemeral one for the fetch operation
• Downloads fresh content from all configured sources
• Runs content transformations
• Updates local content cache

This is useful for updating content without restarting applications or the controller.

Monitor Command

launchpad monitor [options]

The monitor command manages applications:

• If a controller is already running (via launchpad start), it connects and starts monitoring via IPC
• If no controller is running, it starts an ephemeral one for monitoring
• Starts configured applications
• Monitors for crashes and restarts as needed
• Collects process statistics

Use this when you want to manage applications independently or connect to an existing controller instance.

Global Options

All commands support these options:

Option	Description	Type
--config, -c	Path to your JS config file	string
--env, -e	Path(s) to your .env file(s)	array
--env-cascade, -E	Cascade env variables from multiple .env files	string
-verbose, -v	Increase logging verbosity	count
--help	Show help information	flag