Selecting a Deployment Mode

CEDAR can run entirely on the host, entirely in Docker, or as a mixture of the two. The mode tells cedarcli which arrangement you intend to operate. This prevents native and Docker services from competing for the same ports or being stopped by the wrong command.

Mode	What Runs Natively	What Runs in Docker
native	The complete CEDAR system	Nothing
hybrid	The seven frontend development servers	Infrastructure and microservices
docker	Nothing	The complete CEDAR system

Select a Mode

Choose one mode before using native or Docker commands:

cedarcli mode native --profile develop

cedarcli mode hybrid --profile develop

cedarcli mode docker

Native and hybrid modes require --profile develop|server; there is no inferred default. develop is the workstation environment: it builds and serves frontends locally and permits the TLS exception needed for local .orgx certificates. server is the staging/production environment: it uses served frontend payloads, verifies certificates, and rejects placeholder server secrets. Docker runs no native applications and therefore takes no profile.

Running cedarcli mode native or cedarcli mode hybrid without the profile fails and records nothing. Selecting a complete mode starts nothing. It checks that the requested arrangement and profile are configured, verifies that they do not conflict with services already running, records both values in $CEDAR_HOME/.cedar/mode.json, and loads that environment automatically for later commands.

See the current mode and its important settings with:

cedarcli mode
cedarcli env status

cedarcli mode with no mode argument only reports the current selection and recorded profile; it does not reconfigure the machine.

Change Modes

Stop the current deployment before selecting another mode. For example, to move from native to Docker:

cedarcli native stop all
cedarcli mode --clear
cedarcli mode docker

Hybrid has both native and Docker components, so stop both:

cedarcli native stop frontends
cedarcli docker stop all
cedarcli mode --clear

The clear command refuses to forget a deployment that is still running. If Docker has already been deliberately shut down, cedarcli mode --clear --force can discard the inactive Docker record. It does not stop containers and should not be used as a substitute for a normal shutdown.

The next three chapters show how to work within each mode.