Development Service Terminal
The development service terminal gives you a browser-based shell inside a supported development service. Use it for short setup tasks, framework commands, file inspection, and connectivity checks while you are prototyping.
The terminal is designed for development services such as framework starters. It is not a replacement for Git-backed application deployments, CI, or production operations.
When To Use It
Use the terminal to:
- Inspect generated project files.
- Run framework commands.
- Install or check development dependencies.
- Test environment variables after connecting a private service.
- Run one-off diagnostics before moving code into Git.
Avoid using it to:
- Store production-only changes that are not committed anywhere.
- Run long background jobs.
- Start a second web server on the same port as the running starter.
- Share secrets in chat, tickets, screenshots, or support messages.
Open A Terminal
- Open Services.
- Select a supported development service.
- Wait until the service status is Running.
- Open the Terminal tab.
- Click Open terminal.
When the session is ready, the terminal shows a connected state. You can clear the screen, reconnect, or close the browser tab when you are done.
Supported Services
Terminal access is available for framework starter services:
| Starter | Useful Check |
|---|---|
| FastAPI Starter | python --version |
| Django Starter | python manage.py check |
| Go Starter | go version |
| Laravel Starter | php artisan --version |
| Next.js Starter | node --version |
| Node Express Starter | node --version |
| Phoenix Starter | mix --version |
| Rails Starter | bin/rails --version |
| Spring Boot Starter | mvn --version |
The exact available tools depend on the selected starter image and whether first-boot dependency setup finished successfully.
Project Files
Starter projects are created on the service workspace. Most starters place the generated project under:
/workspace/app
If first boot could not download dependencies, the service may show an offline fallback page. In that case, inspect the workspace and restart the service later when dependency downloads are available.
Private Service Connections
After connecting a private database, cache, queue, or backend service:
- Wait for the service update to finish.
- Open a new terminal session.
- Check the generated variable names in the service settings.
- Run a small framework-level connectivity test.
Private service connections are scoped to the selected workload. Use them instead of exposing private databases or queues with public URLs.
Session Behavior
- The terminal is available only while the service is running.
- A session can close when the service restarts, sleeps, resizes, or redeploys.
- Reconnect after a service update so new variables are available.
- Long-running commands use the resources assigned to the development service.
- Files written to the starter workspace persist with that service until the service and its data are deleted.
Troubleshooting
If the terminal says it is unavailable:
- Confirm the service is a supported development starter.
- Confirm the service status is Running.
- Wake the service first if it is sleeping.
- Refresh the page and open a new terminal session.
If a command cannot find a dependency:
- Confirm the starter finished its first-boot setup.
- Check whether the generated project is under
/workspace/app. - Restart the service if the package registry was unavailable during first boot.
If connected service variables do not appear:
- Confirm the private service connection is still listed in settings.
- Wait for the update to finish.
- Open a new terminal session.
- Restart the app process if the framework caches environment variables.