Daemon | Ringleader Docs

The daemon is the local control plane: the controller manager (control loops that boot workstations, deliver the in-VM agent, and forward the Docker socket) plus an optional HTTP API. The macOS native app starts one for you automatically; these commands let you run and control it directly.

Bare rl daemon (no subcommand) runs in the foreground; rl daemon start detaches it into the background.

rl daemon                # run in the foreground
rl daemon start          # start detached in the background
rl daemon start --foreground   # explicit foreground form
rl daemon status         # is one running?
rl daemon restart        # stop, then start a fresh one
rl daemon stop

Subcommands

Command	Description
`start`	Start the daemon detached, logging to `<home>/daemon.log`. No-op if one is already running for the data dir. `--foreground` runs it in the foreground instead of detaching.
`stop`	Stop a backgrounded daemon.
`restart`	Stop the running daemon, then start a fresh one (forwards the full flag set).
`status`	Report running state, pid, uptime, home, log path, and the latest log line. Exits `3` when none is running.

Flags

These apply to start/restart (and bare daemon):

Flag	Description
`--home <dir>`	Data directory.
`--addr <address>`	Also serve the HTTP API on this address (default: off).
`--require-auth`	With `--addr`, reject unauthenticated callers (`401`) instead of treating them as local admin.
`--jwks-url <url>`	Auth-broker JWKS URL; with `--addr`, broker-minted tokens are accepted alongside local tokens.
`--store-dsn <dsn>`	PostgreSQL DSN for the control-plane store (default `$RINGLEADER_STORE_DSN`; empty = local SQLite).
`--qemu <auto\|on\|off>`	Register the qemu provider: `auto` (detect), `on` (force), `off` (never). Default `$RINGLEADER_ENABLE_QEMU`, else `auto`.
`--metrics-addr <address>`	Serve Prometheus `/metrics` on this address (default `$RINGLEADER_METRICS_ADDR`; empty = disabled, so the local daemon serves none by default).
`--log-level <level>`	`debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error` (default `$RINGLEADER_LOG_LEVEL`, else `info`).
`--log-format <text\|json>`	Log format (default `$RINGLEADER_LOG_FORMAT`, else `text`).

Inspecting a running daemon

cat  ~/.ringleader/daemon.pid     # the live daemon's pid (absent ⇒ none running)
tail -f ~/.ringleader/daemon.log  # provisioning, agent-delivery and configuration logs

Note

daemon status exits with code 3 (not 1) when no daemon is running, so scripts can distinguish “not running” from a real error, the same convention systemctl uses.