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Start a local development server that runs your project backend locally on your machine. When your project defines site.serveCommand in base44/config.jsonc, dev also spawns your frontend dev server and manages both processes together. To work on only the frontend against your app’s live hosted backend, run base44 dev --remote. Remote mode skips the local backend and proxies the frontend’s /api requests to your app’s published URL, so the app must be published first.
In remote mode, writes go to your live app’s production data.
Learn more about local development, including setup and supported features, in the Local development guide.

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Usage

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Flags

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Frontend dev server

If site.serveCommand is set in your project config, dev runs that command from the project root and:
  • Injects VITE_BASE44_APP_ID (your app’s id) and VITE_BASE44_APP_BASE_URL (the local backend URL) into the frontend process’s environment, so the SDK auto-points at the local backend.
  • Streams the frontend’s output alongside the backend’s, prefixed with [backend] and [frontend].
  • Shuts both processes down together when you press Ctrl-C, and tears the backend down if the frontend exits on its own.
If site.serveCommand is not set, dev runs only the backend and you can start your frontend in a separate terminal.

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See also

  • Local development: Setup and supported features
  • Project structure: site.serveCommand and other config fields
  • build: Build your frontend for production with VITE_BASE44_APP_ID injected
  • deploy: Deploy all project resources to Base44