Local dev⌗

tape dev is the one command. Its job: bring up tape-server + reactors + your agent against a local store.

SQLite (the default)⌗

tape dev                     # native mode if cargo's available, else docker
tape dev --store sqlite

Stores everything under ./.tape/dev.db. Restart the agent and the run picks up where it left off — that's the recovery reactor doing its job.

Postgres / AlloyDB⌗

tape dev --store postgres    # uses docker compose with the bundled postgres

The project scaffold ships a docker-compose.yaml that brings up postgres, tape-server, and the reactor sidecar. Edit it to taste.

Pub/Sub emulator⌗

tape dev --events pubsub-emulator

Brings up Google Cloud SDK's gcloud beta emulators pubsub on :8085. The PubSubConnector honours PUBSUB_EMULATOR_HOST=localhost:8085 automatically.

Bigtable emulator⌗

tape dev --store bigtable-emulator

Brings up cbtemulator and pre-creates the tape table + m family + GC policy (the same shape tape doctor verifies on real Bigtable). No more hand-rolling cbt createtable.

Kill-resume demo⌗

tape dev --kill-resume-demo

Crashes the agent mid-effect, lets the reactor recover it, and asserts that the upstream saw exactly one wire. Use this every time you change the journal shape — it's the canary.

Native mode (no Docker)⌗

If cargo is installed (or a tape-server binary is on PATH), tape dev runs the server natively against SQLite. Faster startup; same contract.