tilt

Tilt Dev Environment Management

Overview

This skill calls direct tilt CLI commands. All operations use the local tilt binary.

For advanced debugging workflows, see workflows.md.

Quick Reference

Operation	Command
List resources	tilt get uiresource -o json
Get logs	tilt logs <resource>
Describe resource	tilt describe uiresource <resource>
Trigger rebuild	tilt trigger <resource>
Enable resources	tilt enable <resource1> <resource2>
Enable only these	tilt enable --only <resource1> <resource2>
Disable resources	tilt disable <resource1> <resource2>
Wait for ready	tilt wait uiresource/<resource> --for=condition=Ready --timeout=30s
Wait for updated	tilt wait uiresource/<resource> --for=condition=UpToDate --timeout=30s

Multi-Instance Support

By default, Tilt runs on port 10350. When working on multiple projects on the same dev machine, append --port {port_number} to any command to target a different Tilt instance (e.g. tilt get uiresource -o json --port 10351).

Commands in Detail

List All Resources with Status

tilt get uiresource -o json

Parse the JSON output to get resource status. Key fields per resource:

• metadata.name — Resource name
• status.runtimeStatus — ok, error, pending, not_applicable, none
• status.updateStatus — ok, error, pending, in_progress, not_applicable, none
• status.disableStatus.state — Enabled or Disabled
• status.conditions[] — Array with type (Ready/UpToDate), status (True/False), reason
• status.buildHistory[0].error — Latest build error (if any)

Health status derivation:

• healthy: runtimeStatus=ok AND updateStatus=ok/not_applicable
• error: runtimeStatus=error OR updateStatus=error
• updating: updateStatus in (in_progress, pending)
• running: runtimeStatus in (ok, pending)
• not_started: both statuses = "none" (manual trigger mode)
• disabled: disableStatus.state = "Disabled"

Get Resource Logs

# Last N lines (native --tail flag, no piping needed)
tilt logs <resource> --tail 200

# Show only errors/warnings (native --level flag)
tilt logs <resource> --level error --tail 100

# Logs from last 5 minutes
tilt logs <resource> --since 5m

# Only build logs or only runtime logs
tilt logs <resource> --source build
tilt logs <resource> --source runtime

# Combine native flags with grep for regex filtering
tilt logs <resource> --tail 500 | grep -iE 'exception|traceback'

# Filter by request ID
tilt logs <resource> | grep 'X-Request-Id: abc123'

Describe Resource (Detailed Info)

tilt describe uiresource <resource>

Returns configuration, conditions, build history, and current state.

Trigger Resource Rebuild

tilt trigger <resource>

Forces a rebuild/update of the resource. Useful for manual-trigger resources or to force a fresh build.

Enable/Disable Resources

# Enable specific resources
tilt enable resource1 resource2

# Enable ONLY these (disables all others — saves system resources)
tilt enable --only resource1 resource2

# Disable specific resources
tilt disable resource1 resource2

Wait for Conditions

# Wait for resource to be ready (most common)
tilt wait uiresource/<resource> --for=condition=Ready --timeout=30s

# Wait for resource to be up-to-date
tilt wait uiresource/<resource> --for=condition=UpToDate --timeout=30s

Valid conditions: Ready, UpToDate

Before waiting, always pre-check the resource status to avoid waiting on terminal failures:

1. If disableStatus.state = "Disabled" → enable it first
2. If runtimeStatus = "error" OR updateStatus = "error" → investigate the error, don't wait
3. If both statuses = "none" → trigger it first with tilt trigger
4. If both statuses = "not_applicable" → resource can't reach the condition

Best Practices

1. Always check status before waiting — saves time on terminal failures
2. Use --only when focusing — conserves memory/CPU by disabling unused services
3. Use native log flags first — --tail, --since, --level, --source are more efficient than piping; use grep only for regex patterns not covered by native flags
4. Check build errors first — tilt describe uiresource <name> shows the latest build error at a glance
5. Use JSON output for parsing — always use -o json when you need to programmatically process resource data