Start and Check the Stack

Runtime lifecycle commands manage local infrastructure only. They delegate to Docker Compose and keep product state changes in the Console.

Service Layout

Service	Default local port
API	3000
STS	8080
Gateway	8081
Audit	9090
Coordinator	4000

Control runtime exposure is managed through the Console control menu, not by targeting a stack service directly from the runtime CLI.

Start

caracal up

Development mode rebuilds local images. Release modes use installed compose assets and the selected Caracal version.

Stop

caracal down
caracal down -v

Use -v only when you intend to remove Docker volumes.

Check Health and Readiness

caracal status
caracal status --ready
caracal status --ready --json

status probes service health endpoints. status --ready probes readiness endpoints and dependencies. The command exits 0 only when the selected probes pass.

Purge Local State

caracal purge

purge can remove stack artifacts, volumes, logs, config, runtime state, secrets, example containers and images, cached assets, or all local runtime state depending on the selected purge target. Use it when you intentionally want a clean local environment.

After a full purge, recreate product state through the Console: zones, applications, providers, resources, policies, Control keys, and generated runtime profiles.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause
status passes but status --ready fails	A service is alive but one of its dependencies or readiness checks is not ready.
Console cannot connect after up	Check caracal status --ready; custom deployments should confirm the Management API URL override.
Workloads cannot exchange tokens	Readiness for STS, Gateway, and audit must pass before debugging workload config.
Local tokens are stale after purge and up	Prefer local generated secret files over exported shell tokens for localhost Console sessions.

Next Step

Continue to Use the Console to create the first zone, application, provider, resource, policy, and runtime profile.