Preview Server

Preview Server

Start and manage the design preview server. The server is hosted at GitHub YaoApp/design-assets and downloaded on demand. It provides live reload via WebSocket and serves all design projects under the workspace.

The preview server is a daemon — once started, it stays running for the entire session. Use start.sh to ensure it's alive (idempotent: it skips if already running). Only restart when the server itself has been updated.

Lifecycle Scripts

All scripts are in $CTX_SKILLS_DIR/preview-server/. Run them via bash:

Ensuring the Server is Running (Most Common)

bash $CTX_SKILLS_DIR/preview-server/start.sh

This downloads the server if needed, then starts it if it's not already running. It is safe to call after every file change — it won't restart unnecessarily.

Checking Status

bash $CTX_SKILLS_DIR/preview-server/check.sh

Restarting (After Server Update)

Only needed when the preview server version changed and dist.zip was re-downloaded:

bash $CTX_SKILLS_DIR/preview-server/restart.sh

Stopping

bash $CTX_SKILLS_DIR/preview-server/stop.sh

Outputting the Preview Link

Always include ?theme= and ?lang= parameters:

# Parse theme
THEME="${CTX_THEME:-dark}"
case "$THEME" in
  light) THEME="light" ;;
  *)     THEME="dark" ;;
esac

# Parse locale
CTX_LOCALE="${CTX_LOCALE:-en-us}"
LANG="${CTX_LOCALE%%-*}"
case "$LANG" in
  zh) LANG="zh" ;;
  *)  LANG="en" ;;
esac

Then output the link:

[Design Preview](service://local/{session}/3000?theme=dark&lang=en)

Preview Link Examples

The preview server SPA (project list, sidebar, 404 page) applies theme and language from these parameters. Users can toggle theme/language via sidebar buttons at runtime.

File Change Notification

Preview server uses WebSocket for automatic live reload. No manual refresh needed when project files change.

Screenshot Capture

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/screenshot \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"path": "/{project}/index.html", "scale": 2, "width": 1200}' \
  -o $WORKDIR/design-works/{project}/.captures/screenshot.png

Rules

• Use bash $CTX_SKILLS_DIR/preview-server/start.sh to ensure the server is alive
• Do NOT restart the server every time a file changes — the daemon handles live reload
• start.sh is idempotent: call it freely, it skips if already running
• Only use restart.sh after the preview server dist.zip was re-downloaded (version bump)
• Preview server is downloaded on demand from GitHub YaoApp/design-assets, never bundled
• After extracting dist.zip, download.sh runs npm install --production if node_modules/ is missing
• INDEX.md version changes trigger auto re-download of dist.zip
• One preview server instance per session
• Always attach ?theme= and ?lang= params to the preview link
• Theme from $CTX.THEME, locale from $CTX.LOCALE
• Never use python3 -m http.server as a substitute
• Use port 3000 (matching sandbox.yao ports configuration)
• Pass WORKDIR env so the server can resolve .attachments/clips/ for clip_write