Run Astral's development server with:

mix astral.dev

Open the printed URL, or ask Astral to open it:

mix astral.dev --open

Options

mix astral.dev --config astral.config.exs --host localhost --port 4000

The default port is 4000. Use --open to open the printed URL in your browser.

What the server does

The development server:

  • serves Astral routes,
  • serves files from public/,
  • delegates browser assets and HMR endpoints to Volt.DevServer,
  • injects Volt's HMR client into rendered HTML,
  • watches pages, layouts, components, and public files,
  • invalidates rendered pages after file changes,
  • renders HTML error pages for Markdown, layout, template, and config failures.

HMR and reloads

Volt handles browser asset HMR. Astral triggers full reloads for site-layer files such as pages, layouts, components, and public files.

Use plain browser JavaScript for static-site interactivity. .astral templates render static HTML; they do not imply LiveView server events.

Build preview

mix astral.dev previews source files and updates as you edit. To check deploy output, run:

mix astral.build

Then serve the generated dist/ directory with any static file server. A static preview shows the site exactly as it was when you last built it; later source edits require another build.