Services

You need Postgres, Redis, or other services running for development. You're managing docker-compose files, running containers manually, or asking teammates to install things locally.

Define your services in a stack.yaml file. Start and stop them with one command.

Define Services

Create a stack.yaml in your project root:

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: dev
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: dev
      POSTGRES_DB: myapp
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    health_check:
      command: pg_isready -U dev
      interval: 5s
      retries: 3

  redis:
    image: redis:7
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    health_check:
      command: redis-cli ping
      interval: 5s
      retries: 3

volumes:
  pgdata:

Start Services

8v run

This reads your stack.yaml, pulls the required images, starts each service, sets up port forwarding, and runs health checks. You'll see log output from all services.

Press Ctrl+C to stop everything.

To run in the background:

8v run -d

Stop Services

8v stop

Stops all running services and cleans up.

View Logs

8v logs postgres

Streams logs from a specific service. Useful when something fails to start.

YAML Reference

Field	Description
`image`	OCI image to pull (e.g., `postgres:16`)
`ports`	Port mappings, `host:container` format
`environment`	Environment variables passed to the service
`volumes`	Persistent storage mounts
`health_check`	Command to verify the service is ready
`depends_on`	Services that must start first

Docker Compose Compatibility

If your project has a docker-compose.yml and no stack.yaml, 8Vast reads the Compose file as a fallback. This means you can try 8Vast without rewriting your existing service definitions.

For new projects, use stack.yaml — it's simpler and designed for the features 8Vast supports.

How It Works

8Vast uses lightweight VMs instead of containers. Each service runs in its own isolated environment with its own kernel. Port forwarding, volume mounts, and health checks work the same way you'd expect.

The result is better isolation than containers with the same developer experience.

Early Features

Service management is early. What works today:

Start and stop services
Port forwarding
Volume mounts
Health checks
Log streaming
Depends-on ordering

What's being built:

Multi-environment deployment
Service orchestration across machines
GPU passthrough
Snapshot and restore

Getting Started — install 8Vast and run your first project
Code Quality — build, test, lint, and format your code

Referenced by

Documentation