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Runtime operations

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Runtime operations allow you to trigger one-off commands or scripts on your project. Similar to crons, they run in the app container but not on a specific schedule. You can define runtime operations in your app configuration and trigger them at any time through the Platform.sh CLI.

For example, if you have a static website, you may want to set up a runtime operation to occasionally fetch content from a backend system without having to rebuild your whole app.

You can use runtime operations if you have Grid or Dedicated Gen 3 environments.

Define a runtime operation Anchor to this heading

To define a runtime operation, add a configuration similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  RUNTIME_OPERATION_NAME:
    role: USER_ROLE
    commands:
      start: COMMAND

When you define a runtime operation, you can specify which users can trigger it according to their user role:

  • viewer
  • contributor
  • admin

If you don’t set the role option when configuring your runtime operation, by default all users with the contributor role can trigger it.

For example, to allow admin users to clear the cache of a Drupal site, you could define an operation like the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  clear-rebuild:
    role: admin
    commands:
      start: drush cache:rebuild

The name of the runtime operation in this case is clear-rebuild.

For more possibilities, see other runtime operation examples.

Run a runtime operation Anchor to this heading

First, make sure that you have defined a runtime operation. Then:

  1. Navigate to the environment where you want to run the operation.
  2. Click More.
  3. Click Run runtime operation.
  4. Select the operation you want to run.
  5. Click Run.

A runtime operation can be triggered through the Platform.sh CLI once it has been defined.

Run the following command:

platform operation:run RUNTIME_OPERATION_NAME --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

You can only trigger a runtime operation if you have permission to do so. Permissions are granted through the role option specified in the runtime operation configuration. This can only be done if a runtime operation has been defined.

For example, to trigger the runtime operation defined previously, you could run the following command:

platform operation:run clear-rebuild --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

List your runtime operations Anchor to this heading

To list all the runtime operations available on an environment, run the following command:

platform operation:list --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

Runtime operation examples Anchor to this heading

Build your app when using a static site generator Anchor to this heading

During every Platform.sh deployment, a standard build step is run. When you use a static site generator like Gatsby or Next.js with a headless backend, you need to run a second build step to get your app ready for production.

This is because, as its framework is being built, your frontend needs to pull content-related data from your backend’s API (to generate all the static HTML pages your site is to serve). To accomplish this on Platform.sh, where each app goes through a build-deploy pipeline in parallel, your frontend’s build must be delayed until after your backend has fully deployed. It’s often delayed up until the post_deploy hook stage, when the filesystem is read-only.

You can use a runtime operation to trigger the second build step after the initial deployment of your app or after a redeployment. You can also trigger it when you need to fetch content from your backend but want to avoid going through the whole Platform.sh build and deploy processes again.

To run the Gatsby build step, define a runtime operation similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  gatsby-build:
    role: viewer
    commands:
      start: gatsby build

To trigger your runtime operation, run a command similar to the following:

platform operation:run gatsby-build --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

To run the Next.js build step, define a runtime operation similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  next-build:
    role: admin
    commands:
      # All below are valid, depending on your setup
      start: next build
      # start: npx next build
      # start: npm run build

To trigger your runtime operation, run a command similar to the following:

platform operation:run next-build --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

Execute actions on your Node.js app Anchor to this heading

You can define runtime operations for common pm2 process manager tasks.

To ping your Node.js app, define a runtime operation similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  pm2-ping:
    role: admin
    commands:
      start: |
        # Assuming pm2 start npm --no-daemon --watch --name $APP -- start -- -p $PORT
        APP=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.name')
        pm2 ping $APP

To trigger your runtime operation, run a command similar to the following:

platform operation:run pm2-ping --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

To reload your Node.js app, define a runtime operation similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  pm2-reload:
    role: admin
    commands:
      start: |
        # Assuming pm2 start npm --no-daemon --watch --name $APP -- start -- -p $PORT
        APP=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.name')
        pm2 reload $APP

To trigger your runtime operation, run a command similar to the following:

platform operation:run pm2-reload --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

To restart your Node.js app, define a runtime operation similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
operations:
  pm2-restart:
    role: admin
    commands:
      start: |
        # Assuming pm2 start npm --no-daemon --watch --name $APP -- start -- -p $PORT
        APP=$(cat package.json | jq -r '.name')
        pm2 restart $APP

To trigger your runtime operation, run a command similar to the following:

platform operation:run pm2-restart --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

Define management commands on your Django project Anchor to this heading

On a Django project, you can define custom django-admin commands, for example to run a one-off management command (manual migration in the example above) outside of the Django ORM migration framework. To do so, define a runtime operation similar to the following:

.platform.app.yaml
name: myapp

type: python:3.9

operations:
  manual-migration:
    role: admin
    commands:
      start: python manage.py manual_migration

To trigger your runtime operation, run a command similar to the following:

platform operation:run manual-migration --project PROJECT_ID --environment ENVIRONMENT_NAME

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