ironflow validate

Validate an ironflow.yaml configuration file without starting the server. Checks syntax, schema, environment variable references, and kind-specific rules.

ironflow validate [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Short	Type	Default	Description
--config	-f	string		Path to ironflow.yaml configuration file (required)

Output:

Validating ironflow.yaml...

  Kind:     Server
  Storage:  sqlite (.ironflow/ironflow.db)
  NATS:     embedded, persistent (.ironflow/ironflow-nats)
  Auth:     DEV MODE (disabled)
  Tracing:  disabled
  Metrics:  disabled

✓ Valid. Ready to boot with: ironflow serve -f ironflow.yaml

With -f the file is the source of truth, so the environment variables the flags-only path would have read (NATS_URL, NATS_CREDS_FILE, NATS_STORE_DIR, IRONFLOW_NODE_ID, IRONFLOW_DATABASE_URL, IRONFLOW_STALE_CLAIM_THRESHOLD, and the others listed on serve) are not applied. validate names each one that is set but ignored — the same list ironflow serve -f warns about, except the two IRONFLOW_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_* seed variables, which only serve -f reports:

  Ignored environment variables (with -f, the file is the source of truth):
    NATS_URL                                 → set spec.nats.url, or url: ${NATS_URL}

PostgreSQL configurations also require spec.blobs.url (or IRONFLOW_BLOB_URL), spec.auth.jwtSecret, and spec.auth.bootstrapKeyFile. validate checks these before any server state is created. A bootstrap output supplied only with the serve --bootstrap-key-file flag must be put in the YAML to validate that file.

Examples:

ironflow validate -f ironflow.yaml
ironflow validate -f /etc/ironflow/production.yaml

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