Start and Stop Commands

By default, Penny uses a single command to start your app and kills the process (SIGKILL) when the idle timeout expires.

Simple Command

["myapp.example.com"]
command = "node server.js"

Penny starts the process and kills it when idle.

Separate Start and Stop

If your app needs a graceful shutdown — for example a Docker container or a database — provide separate start and stop commands using the table form:

["myapp.example.com".command]
start = "docker start myapp"
end = "docker stop myapp"

When using the table form, Penny runs the end command on shutdown instead of killing the process.

When to Use Separate Commands

• Docker containers: Use docker start/docker stop for proper container lifecycle
• Databases: Ensure clean shutdown with proper flush/checkpoint
• Process managers: When the start command doesn't directly run the process (e.g., systemctl start)
• Cleanup required: When you need to run cleanup scripts on shutdown

Timeouts

Both command forms respect the timeout settings:

["myapp.example.com"]
start_timeout = "30s"   # max time to wait for health check
stop_timeout = "30s"    # max time to wait for stop command