sbrt

sbrt is a terminal UI (TUI) for managing a Spring Boot application during local development.

It runs the Spring Boot application from the current project directory and provides a simple interactive interface for:

• Viewing application logs
• Restarting Spring Boot through Spring DevTools
• Performing a clean restart
• Clearing logs
• Searching logs
• Gracefully stopping the application
• Showing the current application and restart status

sbrt is designed to be run directly from a Spring Boot project:

cd my-spring-project
sbrt

The current version is designed for projects using the Maven Wrapper (./mvnw).

Installation

Install sbrt globally using npm:

npm install -g sbrt

Verify the installation:

sbrt --version

Setup

1. Spring Boot DevTools

sbrt uses Spring Boot DevTools for application restart.

Make sure your Spring Boot project has the Spring Boot DevTools dependency.

For Maven:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

2. Configure the shared environment variables

sbrt and the Spring Boot application use the same environment variables to determine the DevTools restart configuration.

Have the following variables in your Spring Boot .env file:

SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_ENABLED=true
SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_TRIGGER_FILE=.restart.trigger

These variables have two consumers:

                    .env
                     │
          ┌──────────┴──────────┐
          ↓                     ↓
        sbrt              Spring Boot
          │               application.yml
          │                     │
          └────  Restart  ──────┘

This is important because sbrt should display the same restart mode that Spring Boot is configured to use.

3. Configure Spring Boot

Reference the same environment variables from application.yml:

spring:
  devtools:
    restart:
      enabled: ${SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_ENABLED:false}
      trigger-file: ${SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_TRIGGER_FILE:}

Do not configure different values separately for sbrt and Spring Boot. The .env values should be the single source of truth for the local development setup.

4. Create the trigger file

When using manual restart, create the trigger file in your resources directory:

touch src/main/resources/.restart.trigger

The trigger filename is user-defined. .restart.trigger is the default filename used in this example, you can change to whatever you like. The filename configured in SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_TRIGGER_FILE env variable must match the actual file.

Add the trigger file to your project's .gitignore as the file is only required for local development:

src/main/resources/.restart.trigger

Environment Variables

Manual restart

To use the r action in sbrt:

SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_ENABLED=true
SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_TRIGGER_FILE=.restart.trigger

sbrt displays:

● MANUAL

and provides:

[ r ] Restart

Pressing r updates the configured trigger file, allowing Spring DevTools to restart the application.

Automatic restart

If DevTools restart is enabled but no trigger file is configured:

SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_ENABLED=true

sbrt displays:

● AUTO

and shows:

Auto Restart

The manual r action is not available.

Restart unavailable

To disable DevTools restart:

SPRING_DEVTOOLS_RESTART_ENABLED=false

sbrt displays:

● UNAVAILABLE

The manual restart action is not available.

The clean restart action remains available regardless of the DevTools restart configuration.

Running sbrt

Run sbrt from the root of your Spring Boot project:

cd my-spring-project
sbrt

sbrt uses the current working directory and starts:

./mvnw spring-boot:run

The Spring Boot application's Maven output is displayed inside the TUI.

Keyboard Controls

| Key | Action | | ----------- | ----------------------- | | ↑ | Scroll logs up 1 line | | ↓ | Scroll logs down 1 line | | ctrl+↑ | Scroll logs up 1 page | | ctrl+↓ | Scroll logs down 1 page | | shift+↑ | Go to beginning of logs | | shift+↓ | Go to latest logs | | / | Search logs | | r | Restart using DevTools | | R | Clean restart | | c | Clear logs | | q | Quit |

The r action is only available when manual DevTools restart is configured.

R performs a clean restart:

./mvnw clean
    ↓
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Requirements

• Node.js
• npm
• Java
• Maven Wrapper (./mvnw)
• Spring Boot application
• Spring Boot DevTools for DevTools-based restart

Current Scope

The current version of sbrt is intentionally focused on the development workflow used by Polygon Technology.

Currently:

• Maven projects are supported
• ./mvnw is expected to be available
• The current working directory is treated as the Spring Boot project
• Spring Boot is started with ./mvnw spring-boot:run

Support for other build tools and project types may be added in the future.

License

sbrt is open source software licensed under the MIT License.

See the LICENSE file for the complete license text.

Copyright © 2026