Quick Start

A Launchfile describes what your application needs to run. Create a file called Launchfile (no extension) in your project root:

Minimal example

Three fields and a start command — the simplest possible Launchfile:

name: my-app
runtime: node
commands:
  start: "node server.js"

Adding a database

Declare what your app needs. The platform figures out how to provide it:

name: my-app
runtime: node
requires:
  - type: postgres
    set_env:
      DATABASE_URL: $url
commands:
  start: "node server.js"
health: /health

The $url expression is resolved at deploy time — the platform provisions Postgres and injects the connection URL into your environment.

Validate with the SDK

Use the TypeScript SDK to parse and validate your Launchfile:

import { readLaunch, validateLaunch } from "launchfile";

const app = readLaunch(`
  name: my-app
  runtime: node
  requires: [postgres]
  commands:
    start: "node server.js"
`);

const result = validateLaunch(app);
if (!result.success) {
  console.error(result.error.issues);
}

Next steps

• Browse real-world examples from minimal to multi-component
• Read the full specification for every field and expression
• Explore the SDK reference for parsing, validation, and serialization