softkave-forerunner

Application runner & helpers — a CLI tool and Node.js SDK for managing certificates, MongoDB instances, PostgreSQL, the system hosts file, processes, env files, and more.

Overview

Forerunner provides tools for:

• Certificate management: Generate CAs, signed certificates, SSH keypairs, and keyfiles
• MongoDB management: Download, configure, and run MongoDB replica sets (Docker)
• PostgreSQL management: Run and configure PostgreSQL instances (Docker)
• Hosts file management: Manage /etc/hosts entries for local development
• Process management: Start background apps with PID/log tracking; find child PIDs
• Run env: Run commands with variables from .env* files (discovery, multi-select, or explicit paths)
• Security: Generate production-grade passwords and JWT secrets

Quick start

Install

npm install softkave-forerunner
# or
npx softkave-forerunner

CLI

softkave-forerunner <command> [subcommand] [options]

SDK

import {generateCA, initMongo} from 'softkave-forerunner';

Documentation

Detailed guides are in docs/:

Topic	Link
Installation	docs/installation.md
Usage (CLI & SDK)	docs/usage.md
Commands	docs/commands/
Configuration files	docs/configuration/
SDK reference	docs/sdk/
Examples	docs/examples.md

Commands

certs — Certificate management

• ca — Generate Certificate Authority
• cert — Generate signed certificate
• ssh-key — Generate an SSH keypair
• keyfile — Generate a keyfile (e.g. MongoDB keyFile)

mongo — MongoDB management

• scaffold-config — Generate MongoDB configuration file
• validate-config — Validate MongoDB configuration file
• setup-replica-set — Setup replica set (deprecated)
• generate-certs — Generate MongoDB certificates
• start — Start MongoDB instances
• stop — Stop MongoDB instances
• setup-users — Setup MongoDB users
• print-uri — Print MongoDB connection URI
• replica-set-status — Print replica set status
• restart — Rolling restart of replica set members

postgres — PostgreSQL management

• scaffold-config — Generate PostgreSQL configuration file
• validate-config — Validate PostgreSQL configuration file
• generate-certs — Generate PostgreSQL certificates
• start — Start PostgreSQL instance
• stop — Stop PostgreSQL instance
• setup-users — Setup PostgreSQL users
• setup-dbs — Setup PostgreSQL databases
• print-uri — Print PostgreSQL connection URI

etc-hosts — Hosts file management

• set — Set host entry
• remove — Remove host entry
• list — List host entries
• backup — Backup hosts file
• restore — Restore hosts file

pm — Process management

• start — Start a background process with PID and log tracking
• children-pids — Find all child PIDs of a parent PID

run-env — Run with env files

• run-env — Run a command with selected or explicit .env* files

security — Security utilities

• password — Generate production-grade password(s)
• jwt-secret — Generate production-grade JWT secret(s)

Release notes

See notes/releases/v0.x.x.md for version history and migration notes.

Help

softkave-forerunner <command> --help
softkave-forerunner <command> <subcommand> --help