feat(dev): base44 dev --remote — local frontend against the production backend

[davidsu]

Note

Description

Adds a --remote flag to base44 dev that runs the project's site.serveCommand locally while pointing it at the app's published backend instead of spinning up a local dev server. This lets you iterate on the frontend against real production data without running a local backend. The flag is mutually exclusive with --port, and the command fails fast when the project has no site.serveCommand or the app has no published URL.

Related Issue

None

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• Documentation update
• Refactoring (no functional changes)
• Other (please describe):

Changes Made

• New --remote flag on base44 dev (packages/cli/src/cli/commands/dev.ts): resolves the app's published site URL via getSiteUrl() and starts site.serveCommand with VITE_BASE44_APP_ID and VITE_BASE44_APP_BASE_URL pointing at the live app, skipping createDevServer() entirely.
• Validation: validateDevOptions now rejects --remote --port with "--port applies to the local backend, which --remote does not start."; --remote without a site.serveCommand throws a ConfigInvalidError explaining the requirement.
• Outro message warns that the frontend targets the live app and "every write hits your live app".
• Refactor of dev.ts: split the old devAction into localDevAction / remoteDevAction behind a thin dispatcher; replaced createConfiguredServeRunner with a config-only resolveConfiguredSite helper (returning a ConfiguredSite pick of the runner options) so both paths share config resolution but construct their own runner; extracted stopRunnerOnProcessSignals for the shared SIGINT/SIGTERM teardown.
• Export ServeCommandRunnerOptions from serve-command-runner.ts so dev.ts can derive ConfiguredSite from it.
• Tests (packages/cli/tests/cli/dev.spec.ts): 5 new cases covering the happy path (serve command receives the published URL, no local backend started), missing published URL, --remote + --port rejection, missing site.serveCommand, and non-zero exit when the frontend exits.
• CHANGELOG entry under Added.

Testing

• I have tested these changes locally
• I have added/updated tests as needed
• All tests pass (npm test)

Checklist

• My code follows the project's style guidelines
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation (if applicable)
• My changes generate no new warnings
• I have updated docs/ (AGENTS.md) if I made architectural changes

Additional Notes

• No docs/ changes were needed: the guides under docs/ are architectural topic guides, and the command factory / runCommand patterns are unchanged. User-facing behavior is captured in the CHANGELOG.
• The remote path calls process.exit(code ?? 1) in runner.onExit to mirror the frontend's exit code, matching the existing local-path teardown behavior in startServeCommand.
• Existing (non---remote) base44 dev behavior is untouched — the refactor is behavior-preserving for the local path.
• The test suite was not executed in this environment (bun run typecheck / bun run test were not permitted here), so the two verification boxes above are left unchecked.

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_{🤖 Generated by Claude | 2026-08-03 13:20 UTC | 7702fbb}

[github-actions]

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npm i @base44-preview/cli@0.1.7-pr.588.7702fbb

Prefer not to change any import paths? Install using npm alias so your code still imports base44:

npm i "base44@npm:@base44-preview/cli@0.1.7-pr.588.7702fbb"

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{
  "dependencies": {
    "base44": "npm:@base44-preview/cli@0.1.7-pr.588.7702fbb"
  }
}

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