stackctl

Run your monorepo's stack in one terminal.

stackctl is a terminal UI and CLI for a monorepo's services, infrastructure, tests and CI during development. You describe your services once, in a small typed config file. stackctl starts the ones you pick and the services they need, brings up their infrastructure, loads their environment, and shows it all in one place.

Documentation: stackctl.dev

• One typed config. stackctl.config.ts describes every service. Pick one and the services it needs come with it, started in order and held until they are healthy.
• A terminal UI. One combined, filterable log, with each service's state and memory in the footer. Drive it with the keyboard or the mouse.
• Infra included. Point it at your docker-compose.yaml: databases and brokers come up, get healthy and get migrated before your services start.
• Environment handled. Layered .env files per workspace, service and mode, injected into each process and reloaded when a file changes.
• A hostname per service. An optional dev reverse proxy, over TLS too, with a status page while a service starts.
• The same stack in tests and CI. startStack() for an e2e suite, stackctl start --detach for a CI job, in a mode that runs beside your dev session.
• An SDK for scripts and tests. startStack(), exec(), run() and resolveEnv() give your own code what the CLI gives a shell, typed and with the same environment.
• Built for coding agents. A headless mode, a localhost control API, an installable skill and llms.txt.
• Any language. A service is a dev script in package.json or a Makefile target.

pnpm add -D stackctl
pnpm stackctl init

Requires Node.js 26.12.1 or newer, on macOS or Linux.

// stackctl.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'stackctl';

export default defineConfig({
  serviceRootDir: 'apps', // each service lives at apps/<name>
  services: {
    api: {
      // read from api's .env files, and given to the process as PORT
      port: ({ envs }) => Number(envs.API_PORT),
      healthcheck: '/health',
    },
    web: {
      port: 3000,
      // selecting web also runs api, and holds web until api is healthy
      deps: [{ service: 'api', wait: true }],
    },
  },
});

Each service needs a dev script in its package.json, or a dev target in a Makefile. Then, with sctl, the short alias of stackctl:

pnpm sctl                 # the terminal UI: pick services, run them
pnpm sctl --headless -s web   # no UI: stream logs to stdout
pnpm sctl run api seed    # one script, with api's environment
pnpm sctl infra up        # bring the infra up, then exit

• Getting started
• The config file
• CLI
• Control API
• SDK
• Built for agents

A complete example monorepo is in example/.

For coding agents, the docs are indexed at stackctl.dev/llms.txt, and ship inside the package at node_modules/stackctl/docs/llms.txt.

MIT