The hz command line tool’s primary function is to start a standalone Horizon server. It also provides utilities for initializing a new Horizon project, creating a self-signed SSL certificate, and other tasks.
Commands
Initialize a new Horizon project. hz init with no argument will initialize a project in the current directory; hz init <directory> will initialize a project in the specified directory, creating the directory if necessary. The project will be given the name of the specified directory (the current directory if no argument is given).
The hz serve <project path> command starts a Horizon server for the given Horizon project. Once started, it serves HTTP(S) requests for your application on the configured port.
Every Horizon server requires a RethinkDB server to connect to. Use the --connect <RethinkDB host> option to connect to an existing RethinkDB server, or use --start-rethinkdb to automatically start a local RethinkDB server. (Note that the --dev option for development mode includes --start-rethinkdb by default.)
Note that if you are using a database from a Horizon 1.x application, the serve command will exit with an error. Use hz migrate to upgrade your database in place.
hz serve supports the following command-line options:
--project-name NAME, -n NAME Name of the Horizon project. Determines the name of the RethinkDB database that stores the project data.--serve-static [PATH] Enable serving static files via HTTP(S). You can additionally specify the path from which static files will be served (default: ./dist).--debug [yes|no] Print additional debug output. Default: no--schema-file [PATH] Use a given schema file for the database. If the specified schema conflicts with the existing database, a warning will be printed to the console and the option will be ignored. (Use hz schema apply --force to override this.)--bind HOST, -b HOST The host name or IP address that the Horizon server should listen on for incoming requests. Can be specified multiple times to bind to multiple addresses. Default: localhost--port PORT, -p PORT The port number the Horizon server should listen on for incoming requests. Default: 8181--connect HOST:PORT, -c HOST:PORT The host and port of the RethinkDB server to connect to, or a rethinkdb:// URI string (see RethinkDB options in the configuration file documentation for details). Default: localhost:28015--key-file PATH The key file to use for the HTTPS server. Default: ./horizon-key.pem--cert-file PATH The certificate to use for the HTTPS server. Default: ./horizon-cert.pem--rdb_timeout SECONDS: timeout to make the connection to the RethinkDB cluster, in seconds. Default: 20The following options provide alternatives to specifying these values in the --connect string:
--rdb_host HOSTNAME--rdb_port PORT--rdb_user USERNAME--rdb_password PASSWORD--token-secret SECRET A key string for signing JWTs. If not specified, a new random secret is used on each server start.--allow-unauthenticated [yes|no] Allow unauthenticated users. See Authentication for details. Default: no--allow-anonymous [yes|no] Allow anonymous users. See Authentication for details. Default: no--auth PROVIDER,ID,SECRET Enable an auth provider with the given options. E.g. facebook,ID,SECRET. See Authentication for details.--auth-redirect URL The URL to redirect to upon completing authentication. Default: /--access-control-allow-origin: A host that can access auth settings in production (i.e., set the Access-Control-Allow-Origin HTTP header). "*" may be specified as a wildcard. Default: ''--dev Runs the server in development mode.--secure [yes|no] Serve websockets and files over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. Ignores the --key-file and --cert-file options if set to no. Default: yes--permissions [yes|no] Check permissions on requests. Warning: Disabling this on a production server is a security risk and can be used by an attacker to exhaust the server’s resources. Only recommended for development use. Default: yes--start-rethinkdb [yes|no] Start up a RethinkDB in the current directory. Ignores --connect if enabled. Default: no--auto-create-collection [yes|no] Create collections automatically on first use. Warning: Enabling this on a production server is a security risk and can be used by an attacker to exhaust the server’s resources. Only recommended for development use. Default: no--auto-create-index [yes|no] Create indexes automatically on first use. Warning: Enabling this on a production server is a security risk and can be used by an attacker to exhaust the server’s resources. Only recommended for development use. Default: noIn development mode (hz serve --dev), the following flags are enabled by default:
--secure no--permissions no--auto-create-collection yes--auto-create-index yes--start-rethinkdb yes--allow-unauthenticated yes--allow-anonymous yes--serve-static ./dist--access-control-allow-origin '*'--schema-file .hz/schema.tomlDevelopment mode makes it easy to run a local Horizon instance during application development. Because permission checking is disabled and collections and indexes get automatically created, new application code can be tested without additional configuration.
Development mode should never be enabled on a production server that is publicly accessible. An attacker can exploit a development server by sending unintended requests. These requests can be used to read and/or modify arbitrary data stored for your Horizon application, or can be used to exhaust the resources of your server.
Create a private and public TLS certificate pair for development. Running this will create two files, horizon-cert.pem and horizon-key.pem. These can be specified as options to hz serve or placed in the configuration file.
Note that the certificate created by create-cert uses no local identity information; the data is completely random. If you need to use an existing certificate or credentials, you’ll have to create the certificate on your own using openssl or a similar tool.
Save the currently defined Horizon schema, including validation rules, collection and index specifications, as a TOML file. For an example of this command in practice, read the section on “Configuring rules” in Permissions and schema enforcement.
Run hz schema save -h for details on options.
If you use the default schema filename (.hz/schema.toml), existing schema files will be preserved, renamed to schema.toml_ with a datestamp appended.
Load a previously-extracted schema into a Horizon cluster. Run hz schema apply -h for details on options.
While the schema format changed with Horizon 2.0, schema apply will read pre-2.0 files. (Use schema save to rewrite them in the current format.)
Migrate a Horizon database from the 1.x to 2.x internal format. This command must be used on databases created with Horizon 1.x applications; Horizon will exit with an error if the serve command is executed with an old format database.
Manually create a JSON Web Token for a user, allowing user bootstrapping. This is necessary to log in as the Horizon admin user the first time. Simply pass the user ID value to make-token as the argument:
hz make-token [user-id]
The JWT will be printed to the console.
For more details, read “Making an admin auth token” in Permissions and schema enforcement.