fexapi dev

Starts the development server with optional file watching and auto-reload.

Usage

fexapi dev [--watch] [--host <host>] [--port <number>] [--log]

If --watch is not provided, dev runs as a one-shot server start (same behavior as serve with the same host/port/log options).

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
--watch	false	Auto-reload when config or schema files change
--host <host>	localhost	Host to bind to
--port <number>	Schema port or 4000	Port to listen on
--log	false	Print request/response logs

Watched Files

When --watch is enabled, the server reloads on changes to:

• fexapi/schema.fexapi
• fexapi/.cache/generated.api.json
• fexapi.config.js
• fexapi/schemas/*.yaml and fexapi/schemas/*.yml
• other files under fexapi/ (restart only)

When schema-related files change, dev --watch regenerates fexapi/.cache/generated.api.json before reloading the server.

Watch reloads are debounced, and generation-triggered updates to fexapi/.cache/generated.api.json are temporarily suppressed to prevent duplicate reload loops.

Examples

fexapi dev --watch
fexapi dev --watch --log
fexapi dev --watch --port 5000 --log

Difference from serve

	serve	dev --watch
Starts server	✅	✅
File watching	❌	✅
Auto-reload	❌	✅
Use case	Production-like	Development

Validation Rules

• Unknown options fail fast.
• Duplicate options fail fast.
• --port must be an integer between 1 and 65535.
• Unexpected positional arguments fail fast.