First `vectron.toml`

Minimal example

[[process]]
name = "web"
command = "npm run dev"

What this does

• [[process]] declares one supervised process
• name defines the stable identifier used in status, logs, restart targets, and file names
• command defines the child process to launch

Defaults involved here

• global: optional table
• log_dir: default .vectron/logs
• port_start: default 5000
• port_step: default 100
• shutdown_timeout_secs: default 90
• instances: default 1
• log_mode: effective default console
• log_format: effective default text
• show_timestamps: effective default true
• port_env: field default none; effective port variable PORT unless overridden

Path resolution

Paths such as log_dir, working_dir, and env_file are resolved relative to the directory that contains vectron.toml.

This means that moving the config file changes the meaning of those relative paths.

When you need a port

Vectron allocates a port for each process instance. When a process has an allocated port, Vectron exports it as PORT by default.

If your app reads PORT from its environment, the minimal config can stay unchanged:

[[process]]
name = "web"
command = "npm run dev"

Use port_env only when the child process expects another variable name:

[[process]]
name = "web"
command = "npm run dev"
port_env = "APP_PORT"

port_env changes the environment variable name. It does not interpolate values inside command. If a command must expand $PORT directly in its arguments, run it through a shell explicitly.

Process naming

Choose stable names. They appear in:

• vectron status
• vectron restart <target>
• vectron logs --target <target>
• log file names under .vectron/logs

Next useful additions

After the minimal config, the most common next steps are:

• add instances = N
• set group = "name" and optional labels = [...]
• add [process.env]
• define readiness with [process.readiness]
• define log_format = "json" or log_format = "logfmt"

Use the full reference for vectron.toml for exact field behavior and defaults. Use Examples when you want complete patterns that are still short enough to adapt.