Remote development¶

Move the development loop to a remote host when an app depends on that host's data, identity, network, runtime, or compute. First save the host:

shinyhub connect https://hub.example.com --name dev

Then attach the current directory to an existing app:

shinyhub dev . --remote dev --slug sales-dev --open

The saved current host and SHINYHUB_HOST never turn an ordinary local dev invocation into a remote mutation.

Choose the target lifecycle¶

Attach an existing app - default¶

shinyhub dev . --remote dev --slug sales-dev

A misspelled slug fails instead of creating a durable app.

Create a persistent app¶

shinyhub dev . --remote dev --create --slug sales-dev

--create fails if the slug already exists. The app remains after the watch process stops.

Create a private scratch app¶

shinyhub dev . --remote dev --ephemeral --ttl 8h

Ephemeral apps are always private and use a recognizable <directory>-dev-<suffix> slug when none is provided. The TTL must be between 15 minutes and seven days. Closing the terminal ends the development session, but the app remains available until its printed expiry, so a shared URL does not disappear unexpectedly.

Use fleet scope¶

Fleet discovery and selection work exactly as they do locally:

# Preflight and attach every local-source app in the fleet.
shinyhub dev . --remote dev

# Attach one app and compose its shared inputs.
shinyhub dev . --app sales-dashboard --remote dev

# Creation remains deliberately single-app.
shinyhub dev . --app sales-dashboard --remote dev --create
shinyhub dev . --app sales-dashboard --remote dev --ephemeral --ttl 8h

A multi-app session verifies that every selected target exists before the first deployment. If any target is missing, nothing is changed and the CLI points to shinyhub fleet apply. Each app receives its own durable development-session ID and Deployments group. Terminal output is prefixed with the app slug, and multi-app NDJSON records include an app field.

What happens after a save¶

ShinyHub waits for a 750 ms quiet period, builds the same canonical bundle as ordinary deploy, and sends only the latest state. Changes arriving during a deployment are coalesced into one follow-up attempt. Generated, ignored, or metadata-only changes with the same content digest cause no remote mutation.

A build, hook, startup, or readiness failure is printed without ending the watch process. Fix the source and save again. The server attempts to restore the previous successful release after a failed candidate.

Remote deployments currently cycle the app pool during handoff, so viewers may see a brief interruption after each deployed change. Use a dedicated development slug when that interruption is unacceptable.

Deployment history, logs, and traces¶

Every attempted change is an ordinary durable deployment row. Successful versions remain rollback-capable, and failed attempts retain their failure reason. A generated development-session ID connects deployments, replica logs, and proxy traces.

The Deployments tab presents one compact Remote development item per watch process, including actor, target type, save and failure counts, current release, and session state. Expand it for the complete attempt history. View logs and View traces open observability already filtered to that session.

A heartbeat renews the session independently of saves, so Last save remains the latest deployment attempt rather than a liveness signal. Clean shutdown ends the session immediately; after a killed CLI or lost connection, the server-owned lease closes it automatically.

Options and safeguards¶

shinyhub dev . --remote dev --slug sales-dev
shinyhub dev . --remote dev --create --slug sales-dev
shinyhub dev . --remote dev --ephemeral --ttl 8h
shinyhub dev . --remote dev --watch-delay 2s
shinyhub dev . --remote dev --allow-repeated-hooks
shinyhub dev . --remote dev --output ndjson

--create and --ephemeral are mutually exclusive. --watch-delay accepts 100 ms through one minute. Because post-deploy hooks can have non-idempotent side effects, watch mode refuses a manifest containing hooks unless you add --allow-repeated-hooks after reviewing them.

A continuous command cannot emit one final JSON document; use NDJSON for automation. Press Ctrl+C to stop watching. The last successful remote deployment remains in place.

shinyhub deploy --watch remains available for scripts and specialist options, but new interactive workflows should use shinyhub dev so local and remote development share one mental model.