Dev Server Launcher

Windows development server process manager with system tray GUI and full CLI.
Manage Spring Boot, Vite, Node.js, npm, and any dev server from one place.

AI-ready: Full CLI interface for Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and other AI coding assistants. Start/stop servers, read logs, edit config — all from the command line without opening the GUI.

Quick Start

# Download latest release
# https://github.com/DreamingStrawberry/dev-server-launcher/releases

# Double-click to open GUI
DevLauncher.bat

# Or use CLI
DevLauncher.bat status
DevLauncher.bat start all
DevLauncher.bat logs my-backend

CLI Reference

For AI Assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.):
All commands are available via cmd.exe /c "C:\path\to\DevLauncher.bat <command>".
Use status to check services, start/stop to control them, logs to read output, and config/add/edit/remove to manage configuration — all without opening the GUI.

Service Control

DevLauncher.bat status              # Show all service statuses (Running/Stopped)
DevLauncher.bat start <key>         # Start a service
DevLauncher.bat start all           # Start all services
DevLauncher.bat stop <key>          # Stop a service
DevLauncher.bat stop all            # Stop all services
DevLauncher.bat restart <key>       # Restart a service
DevLauncher.bat restart all         # Restart all services
DevLauncher.bat list                # List service keys

Log Viewing

All service stdout/stderr is captured to logs/<key>.log.

DevLauncher.bat logs                # Show recent output for all services
DevLauncher.bat logs <key>          # Show last 50 lines of a service log
DevLauncher.bat logs <key> 200      # Show last 200 lines

Configuration Management

DevLauncher.bat config              # Show full config with live status

# Add a new service
DevLauncher.bat add <key> <group> <short> <port> <dir> <cmd>
DevLauncher.bat add my-api MyApp API 8080 "C:\Projects\api" "mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run"

# Edit a service field (group, short, port, dir, cmd)
DevLauncher.bat edit <key> <field> <value>
DevLauncher.bat edit my-api port 8090
DevLauncher.bat edit my-api cmd "mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run -DskipTests"

# Remove a service (stops it if running)
DevLauncher.bat remove <key>

System

DevLauncher.bat version             # Show version + check for updates
DevLauncher.bat update              # Download and apply latest release
DevLauncher.bat quit                # Stop the running GUI instance
DevLauncher.bat help                # Show all commands

GUI Features

• System Tray — Right-click for service menu, double-click for dashboard
• Dashboard — Real-time status, Start/Stop/Restart, Show/Hide console windows
• Hot-reload Settings — Edit config in GUI, applies instantly without restart
• Error Detection — Alerts when a service goes down or exceeds startup timeout
• Auto-update — Checks GitHub releases on startup, auto-downloads new versions

Tray Icon Colors

Color	Meaning
Green	At least one service running
Red	Error detected
Gray	All stopped

Configuration

On first run, DevLauncher.config.json is created with example services:

[
  {
    "key": "my-backend",
    "group": "MyApp",
    "short": "Back",
    "port": 8080,
    "dir": "C:\\Projects\\my-app",
    "cmd": "mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run"
  },
  {
    "key": "my-frontend",
    "group": "MyApp",
    "short": "Front",
    "port": 5173,
    "dir": "C:\\Projects\\my-app\\frontend",
    "cmd": "npm run dev"
  }
]

Field	Description
key	Unique identifier
group	Group name (services with same group are grouped in tray menu)
short	Short display name
port	TCP port to monitor for status detection
dir	Working directory
cmd	Command to execute

AI / Claude Code Integration

Dev Server Launcher is designed to be fully controllable by AI coding assistants.
No GUI interaction needed — every operation is available via CLI.

Why this matters

When AI assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) work on your code, they often need to:

• Start a backend before testing API changes
• Read server logs to diagnose build errors or runtime exceptions
• Restart services after modifying configuration
• Check if a port is in use before starting a new server

Dev Server Launcher gives AI assistants a single CLI interface to do all of this.

Example: Claude Code on WSL

# Check what's running
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat status"
# ● mw-back    MW-Back   :8080  Running
# ○ mw-react   MW-React  :5190  Stopped

# Start the backend
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat start my-backend"

# Read Spring Boot startup logs to check for errors
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat logs my-backend 100"

# Add a new service
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat add new-api NewProject API 8090 D:\Projects\new ""mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run"""

# Edit config
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat edit my-backend port 8081"

# Restart after config change
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat restart my-backend"

# Self-update to latest version
cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat update"

Example: PowerShell / CMD

DevLauncher.bat status
DevLauncher.bat start all
DevLauncher.bat logs my-backend
DevLauncher.bat stop all

Tip for AI assistant users

Add DevLauncher's path to your project's AI instructions (e.g., CLAUDE.md):

## Dev Server
Use `cmd.exe /c "C:\Users\YOU\DevLauncher.bat <command>"` to manage dev servers.
Available commands: status, start, stop, restart, logs, config, add, edit, remove, update, quit

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• PowerShell 5.1+

Installation

1. Download the latest release
2. Extract to any directory (e.g., C:\DevLauncher\)
3. Double-click DevLauncher.bat — desktop shortcut is created on first run

File Structure

DevLauncher.bat             # Entry point (GUI or CLI based on args)
DevLauncher.ps1             # Main script
DevLauncher.ico             # Auto-generated icon
DevLauncher.config.json     # Service config (auto-generated, gitignored)
DevLauncher.history.json    # Startup time history (gitignored)
logs/                       # Service output logs (gitignored)
  <key>.log                 # Per-service log file

License

MIT