mgi_prepall

The CLI for PrepAll™ — run the PrepAll stack locally for simulation and testing (no physical robot required), with a live split-pane log view.

Use it to:

• Exercise the robot-server REST API against a software-only device-driver-simulator
• Reproduce protocol runs and reproduce bugs on your own machine
• Validate client integrations (Studio, web UIs, scripts) without hardware

Requirements

• Node.js >= 20.11
• macOS or Linux (Windows works but requires Developer Mode for symlink support)

Installation

npm install -g mgi_prepall

Quick start

Start the simulator stack directly:

mgi_prepall simulator

Or run without arguments to enter interactive mode, then type / to open the command palette and select /simulator:

mgi_prepall

What it runs

mgi_prepall simulator starts two processes in sequence and streams their logs side-by-side in your terminal. The simulator replaces the real hardware driver so the full stack runs purely in software:

| Pane | Service | Role | Listens on | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Left (cyan) | device-driver-simulator | Pretends to be the robot hardware (gRPC server) | gRPC :50000, admin HTTP :50002 | | Right (magenta) | robot-server | Real PrepAll backend (REST API + protocol engine) | HTTP :41960 |

Once both services are ready, point your client / tests at:

• REST API: http://localhost:41960/v1
• Swagger UI (interactive API explorer for testing): http://localhost:41960/doc

Hotkeys

| Key | Action | | --- | --- | | q or Ctrl+C | Exit (gracefully stops both services) | | l | Clear both log panes | | / | Open the command palette (interactive mode) |

Runtime directory

On first run the CLI seeds ~/.mgi_prepall/ as the working directory for the simulated stack:

~/.mgi_prepall/
├── .env              # Auto-generated on first run (random JWT_SECRET)
├── db/               # SQLite database (prepall.db)
├── logs/             # Runtime logs
├── config/
│   ├── default/      # Read-only preset, tracks the installed CLI version
│   └── user/         # Your overrides (never overwritten on upgrade)
└── assets/           # Read-only preset, tracks the installed CLI version

assets/ and config/default/ are re-linked to the installed package on every launch, so npm update -g mgi_prepall automatically picks up preset changes. Your data in db/, logs/, config/user/, and .env is never touched.

Isolating test runs

Override the runtime root with MGI_PREPALL_HOME to keep test data out of your default profile — useful for parallel test sessions or for resetting state between scenarios:

MGI_PREPALL_HOME=/tmp/mgi-test-run-1 mgi_prepall simulator

Edit ~/.mgi_prepall/.env to change PORT, JWT_SECRET, etc.

Troubleshooting

Port in use — check lsof -i :50000 -i :41960 -i :50002 and stop any conflicting process before starting.

Database issues — delete ~/.mgi_prepall/db/prepall.db to start fresh (your test protocols and data will be lost).

Reset everything between test runs — remove ~/.mgi_prepall/ entirely; the next launch re-seeds it from scratch.

License

UNLICENSED — internal use only.