Server Commands

Reference for the meepachat server binary

The meepachat binary manages the server lifecycle, infrastructure services, and self-updates.

These are commands for the server binary (meepachat). For the client CLI used to interact with a running instance, see CLI Quickstart.

init

Set up MeepaChat infrastructure with Docker. Starts Postgres, Redis, and MinIO, bootstraps authentication, and writes a config to ~/.meepachat/config.yaml.

meepachat init

Run this once after installing. It requires Docker and Docker Compose v2.

What it does

1. Checks that Docker and Docker Compose v2 are available
2. Writes a Docker Compose file to ~/.meepachat/
3. Starts infrastructure services (Postgres, Redis, MinIO)
4. Bootstraps authentication
5. Writes a complete config to ~/.meepachat/config.yaml

Flags

Flag	Description
--yes, -y	Skip prompts, use defaults (non-interactive)
--help, -h	Show help

Use existing infrastructure

Set environment variables before running init to skip specific Docker containers:

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	Postgres connection string (skips Docker Postgres)
REDIS_URL	Redis connection string (skips Docker Redis)
S3_ENDPOINT	S3-compatible endpoint (skips Docker MinIO)
S3_ACCESS_KEY	S3 access key
S3_SECRET_KEY	S3 secret key
S3_BUCKET	S3 bucket name

# Use your own Postgres; Docker handles Redis and MinIO
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@myhost:5432/mydb meepachat init

# Use Cloudflare R2 for storage
S3_ENDPOINT=your-account.r2.cloudflarestorage.com \
S3_ACCESS_KEY=xxx S3_SECRET_KEY=yyy S3_BUCKET=meepachat \
meepachat init

Port overrides

MeepaChat uses non-default ports for infrastructure to avoid conflicts with local services:

Variable	Default	Description
MEEPACHAT_DB_PORT	5433	Postgres port
MEEPACHAT_REDIS_PORT	6380	Redis port
MEEPACHAT_MINIO_PORT	9010	MinIO port

Data directory

Config and compose files are stored in ~/.meepachat/ by default:

MEEPACHAT_DATA_DIR=/opt/meepachat meepachat init

---

start

Start the MeepaChat server. Forks to the background by default.

meepachat start

If infrastructure services are configured but not running, start brings them up first. The command polls the health endpoint and exits once the server is ready.

Flags

Flag	Description
--foreground, -f	Run in foreground (for systemd or Docker)
--port N	Override the HTTP port
--bind ADDR	Override the bind address

# Run in foreground (systemd unit)
meepachat start --foreground

# Custom port
meepachat start --port 9000

# Bind to localhost only
meepachat start --bind 127.0.0.1

Server logs are written to ~/.meepachat/server.log when running in background mode.

---

stop

Stop all services.

meepachat stop

---

restart

Restart the server process.

meepachat restart

---

status

Show server status and infrastructure service health.

meepachat status

Server: running (PID 12345)
App:    http://localhost:8091
Logs:   /home/user/.meepachat/server.log

SERVICE                   STATE        STATUS
meepachat-db              running      Up 2 hours (healthy)
meepachat-redis           running      Up 2 hours
meepachat-minio           running      Up 2 hours (healthy)

---

logs

Show logs for infrastructure services (Postgres, Redis, MinIO). Server application logs are written to ~/.meepachat/server.log.

meepachat logs           # all infrastructure services
meepachat logs db        # specific service

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reset

Stop all services and remove infrastructure. Prompts for confirmation unless --yes is passed.

meepachat reset
meepachat reset --yes            # skip confirmation
meepachat reset --yes --hard     # full wipe including all data volumes

Flag	Description
--yes, -y	Skip confirmation prompt
--hard	Full wipe: remove all data volumes (irreversible)

--hard permanently deletes all data including the database. There is no undo.

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update

Check for updates and self-update the binary.

meepachat update

• If installed via Homebrew, prints brew upgrade bogpad/tap/meepachat instructions instead of updating in place
• Otherwise, downloads the latest release from GitHub and replaces the binary in place
• Falls back to sudo if the binary is in a protected path (e.g. /usr/local/bin)

Auto-update can also be enabled in config to update automatically every 6 hours. See Auto-Update.

---

version

Print version, commit hash, and build date.

meepachat version

meepachat v0.1.1 (abc1234) built 2026-02-14T00:00:00Z

Also available as meepachat --version or meepachat -v.