bd help --doc dolt.
Configure and manage Dolt database settings and server lifecycle.
Beads uses a dolt sql-server for all database operations. The server is
auto-started transparently when needed. Use these commands for explicit
control or diagnostics.
Server lifecycle:
bd dolt start Start the Dolt server for this project
bd dolt stop Stop the Dolt server for this project
bd dolt status Show Dolt server status
Configuration:
bd dolt show Show current Dolt configuration with connection test
bd dolt set <k> <v> Set a configuration value
bd dolt test Test server connection
Version control:
bd dolt commit Commit pending changes
bd dolt push Push commits to Dolt remote
bd dolt pull Pull commits from Dolt remote
Remote management:
bd dolt remote add <name> <url> Add a Dolt remote
bd dolt remote list List configured remotes
bd dolt remote remove <name> Remove a Dolt remote
Configuration keys for ‘bd dolt set’:
database Database name (default: issue prefix or “beads”)
host Server host (default: 127.0.0.1)
port Server port (auto-detected; override with bd dolt set port <N>)
user MySQL user (default: root)
data-dir Custom dolt data directory (absolute path; default: .beads/dolt)
Flags for ‘bd dolt set’:
—update-config Also write to config.yaml for team-wide defaults
Examples:
bd dolt set database myproject
bd dolt set host 192.168.1.100 —update-config
bd dolt set data-dir /home/user/.beads-dolt/myproject
bd dolt test
bd dolt clean-databases
Identify and drop leftover test and agent databases that accumulate on the shared Dolt server from interrupted test runs and terminated agents. Stale database prefixes: testdb_, beads_test, beads_pt*, beads_vr*, doctest_, doctortest_, benchdb_* These waste server memory and can degrade performance under concurrent load. Use —dry-run to see what would be dropped without actually dropping.bd dolt commit
Create a Dolt commit from any uncommitted changes in the working set. This is the primary commit point for batch mode. When auto-commit is set to “batch”, changes accumulate in the working set across multiple bd commands and are committed together here with a descriptive summary message. Also useful before push operations that require a clean working set, or when auto-commit was off or changes were made externally. For more options (—stdin, custom messages), see: bd vc commitbd dolt killall
Find and kill orphan dolt sql-server processes not tracked by the canonical PID file for the current repo’s Dolt data directory. Under an orchestrator, the canonical server lives at $GT_ROOT/.beads/. Any other dolt sql-server processes using that shared data directory are considered orphans and will be killed. In standalone mode, only dolt sql-server processes using the current project’s Dolt data directory are eligible for cleanup. Other projects’ servers are preserved.bd dolt pull
Pull commits from the configured Dolt remote into the local database. Requires a Dolt remote to be configured in the database directory. For Hosted Dolt, set DOLT_REMOTE_USER and DOLT_REMOTE_PASSWORD environment variables for authentication. Use —remote to pull from a specific named remote instead of the default. The remote must already exist (see ‘bd dolt remote add’).bd dolt push
Push local Dolt commits to the configured remote. Requires a Dolt remote to be configured in the database directory. For Hosted Dolt, set DOLT_REMOTE_USER and DOLT_REMOTE_PASSWORD environment variables for authentication. Use —force to overwrite remote changes (e.g., when the remote has uncommitted changes in its working set). Use —remote to push to a specific named remote instead of the default. The remote must already exist (see ‘bd dolt remote add’).bd dolt remote
Manage Dolt remotes for push/pull replication. Subcommands: add <name> <url> Add a new remote list List all configured remotes remove <name> Remove a remotebd dolt remote add
Add a Dolt remotebd dolt remote list
List configured Dolt remotesbd dolt remote remove
Remove a Dolt remotebd dolt set
Set a Dolt configuration value in metadata.json. Keys: database Database name (default: issue prefix or “beads”) host Server host (default: 127.0.0.1) port Server port (auto-detected; override with bd dolt set port <N>) user MySQL user (default: root) data-dir Custom dolt data directory (absolute path; default: .beads/dolt) Use —update-config to also write to config.yaml for team-wide defaults. Examples: bd dolt set database myproject bd dolt set host 192.168.1.100 bd dolt set port 3307 —update-config bd dolt set data-dir /home/user/.beads-dolt/myprojectbd dolt show
Show current Dolt configuration with connection statusbd dolt start
Start a dolt sql-server for the current beads project. The server runs in the background on a per-project port derived from the project path. PID and logs are stored in .beads/. The server auto-starts transparently when needed, so manual start is rarely required. Use this command for explicit control or diagnostics.bd dolt status
Show the status of the Dolt engine for the current project. In embedded mode, reports that the Dolt engine runs in-process and shows the on-disk data directory. For beads-managed (local) servers, displays PID, port, and data directory from the local PID file. For externally- managed servers — a shared server (dolt.shared-server: true), a remote dolt_server_host, or a local server managed outside bd (dolt.auto-start: false, e.g. an orchestrator-shared sql-server) — pings the configured endpoint via SQL and reports reachability, server version, and database.bd dolt stop
Stop the dolt sql-server managed by beads for the current project. This sends a graceful shutdown signal. The server will restart automatically on the next bd command unless auto-start is disabled.bd dolt test
Test the connection to the configured Dolt server. This verifies that:- The server is reachable at the configured host:port
- The connection can be established