Tilt

Tilt

First Action: Check for Errors

Before investigating issues or verifying deployments, check resource health. Run errors first, separately from pending/in-progress — otherwise real failures get buried in 20+ pending lines:

# 1. Errors only — surface the buildHistory[0].error so you see WHY, not just THAT
tilt get uiresources -o json | jq -r '.items[] | select(.status.runtimeStatus == "error" or .status.updateStatus == "error") | "\(.metadata.name): runtime=\(.status.runtimeStatus) update=\(.status.updateStatus)\n  reason: \((.status.buildHistory[0].error // "(no buildHistory error; check tilt logs)") | gsub("\n"; " ") | .[0:240])"'

# 2. In-progress and pending — informational; an in-progress build may flip to error any moment
tilt get uiresources -o json | jq -r '.items[] | select(.status.updateStatus == "in_progress" or .status.updateStatus == "pending" or .status.runtimeStatus == "pending") | "\(.metadata.name): runtime=\(.status.runtimeStatus) update=\(.status.updateStatus)"'

# 3. Docker-compose container health — MISSED by the error filter above.
#    An `Up (unhealthy)` compose container keeps runtimeStatus=ok/update=ok, so
#    queries 1-2 never flag it; the red UI badge comes from healthStatus here.
tilt get uiresources -o json | jq -r '.items[] | select(.status.composeResourceInfo.healthStatus == "unhealthy") | "\(.metadata.name): compose healthStatus=unhealthy (HEALTHCHECK failing — service may still be up)"'

# 4. Quick status overview
tilt get uiresources -o json | jq '[.items[].status.updateStatus] | group_by(.) | map({status: .[0], count: length})'

If a resource is in_progress when you check, re-poll before declaring it healthy — it can transition straight to error with a populated buildHistory[0].error. The updateStatus field reflects only the current build attempt; the last error always lives in buildHistory[0].error even when updateStatus is none or not_applicable.

Docker-compose resources are a blind spot. Their runtimeStatus/updateStatus reflect only build/up state, NOT the container's docker HEALTHCHECK — so a probe-failing container (docker ps → Up (unhealthy)) reads runtimeStatus=ok and slips past queries 1-2, while the Tilt UI still reddens it. The authoritative signal is .status.composeResourceInfo.healthStatus (healthy / unhealthy / absent when the service has no healthcheck), which query 3 catches. These resources also have k8sResourceInfo: null (spec.type == "docker-compose"); to find why a probe fails, drop to docker: docker inspect <compose-project>-<svc> --format '{{json .State.Health}}' reads the probe's last exit code + output. A common cause is the healthcheck script invoking a CLI the image doesn't ship (e.g. curl/grpcurl removed in slimmed images) — the service is fine, the probe is broken.

Non-Default Ports

When Tilt runs on a non-default port, add --port:

tilt get uiresources --port 37035
tilt logs <resource> --port 37035

Resource Status

# All resources with status
tilt get uiresources -o json | jq '.items[] | {name: .metadata.name, runtime: .status.runtimeStatus, update: .status.updateStatus}'

# Single resource detail
tilt get uiresource/<name> -o json

# Wait for ready
tilt wait --for=condition=Ready uiresource/<name> --timeout=120s

Status values:

• RuntimeStatus: ok, error, pending, none, not_applicable
• UpdateStatus: ok, error, pending, in_progress, none, not_applicable

Logs

tilt logs <resource>
tilt logs <resource> --since 5m
tilt logs <resource> --tail 100
tilt logs --json                    # JSON Lines output

Trigger and Lifecycle

tilt trigger <resource>             # Force update
tilt up                             # Start
tilt down                           # Stop and clean up

Running tilt up

Follow zmx skill patterns — check for existing sessions, derive name from git root, use zmx run (not attach):

PROJECT=$(basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null)" || basename "$PWD")
SESSION="${PROJECT}-tilt"

if zmx list --short 2>/dev/null | grep -q "^${SESSION}$"; then
  echo "Tilt session already exists: $SESSION"
else
  zmx run "$SESSION" 'tilt up'
  echo "Started tilt in zmx session: $SESSION"
fi

Critical: Never Restart for Code Changes

Tilt live-reloads automatically. Never suggest restarting tilt up for:

• Tiltfile edits
• Source code changes
• Kubernetes manifest updates

Restart only for: Tilt version upgrades, port/host changes, crashes, cluster context switches.

References

• TILTFILE_API.md - Tiltfile authoring
• CLI_REFERENCE.md - Complete CLI with JSON patterns
• https://docs.tilt.dev/