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Tablewalk

Reload and restart

A save to an App’s files reloads it in place; a change to what it grants, where its data comes from or how it signs people in waits for a restart.

Terminal window
npx tablewalk --config tablewalk.json --app .   # watches the App directory
# edit views.ts → reloaded; edit tablewalk.json → restart

A save reloads

Section titled “A save reloads”
  • app.ts and every module it imports, pages/, features/, and the modules and stylesheets of its custom components; the whole module graph is read again.
  • A save that does not load keeps the last good App serving; the log says why.
  • A row-policy App (auth.rows: 'policy') reloads too, but its data is refused until its policy has started again for the new App, so the old policy never serves it.

The browser follows

Section titled “The browser follows”

A page open on the App redraws itself after each save, keeping its address, its open record and its scroll. A save that does not load is shown over the last good App, placed in its file:

The last save did not load
resources.ts:3   invalid-app
Expected ',', got 'ident'
  2 |   labels: { status: 'Stage' }
> 3 |   access: 'write',
  • The next good save clears it; Dismiss hides it until a save fails again. The terminal prints the same place under App error:.
  • A record’s unsent edits are not kept: its room is drawn again for the new App.
  • Only a watched App is followed: not a tablewalk build output, a tenant platform, or a handler mounted in your server.
  • Only the author’s page follows. In an App with roles or hidden fields, readers get neither the stream nor the error; they see the new App on their next page.

A restart is needed for

Section titled “A restart is needed for”
Change While it waits
What the App grants: resources’ access, fields, delete, roles, public reads, command grants, ui.connect Every App request answers 503 until a restart; neither the old nor the new authority is served.
Its sources, connection or sign-in: providers, sign-up, default role, the session store, the App’s id The same: bindings are authority.
tablewalk.json: connections, writable, apps and their env Unseen until a restart: the file is read once, at start.
--commands, --jobs, --policy modules Handlers keep the code they started with. A row-policy App whose policy or commands file changes refuses data, and says to restart, until you do.
A tenant App’s files, but for its look Data requests stop until a restart. A save that changes only its themes (ui.theme, customThemes, their faces) is worn in place, on the next page.

With --api-reads the App API is restart-only: a save retires its reads until the server restarts. An App with an authority.lock starts only when the lock agrees with what it grants, so accept a reviewed change with tablewalk check --app <dir> --write-authority before restarting.

Common mistakes

Section titled “Common mistakes”
  • Every request answers 503 after a save → the save changed a grant, a source or sign-in; restart the server.
  • A new connection or a changed command handler is not seen → tablewalk.json and --commands, --jobs, --policy modules load at start; restart.
Section titled “Related”