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Starting Fishnet

Fishnet can be run in several modes depending on your deployment needs.

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Development Mode

For local development with auto-seeded test data: 
fishnet start
The server starts on http://localhost:8473 by default.

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Production Mode

1

Build the production binary

make build-prod
This embeds the dashboard and creates an optimized release binary.
2

Start the server

./target/release/fishnet start

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Stopping Fishnet

To gracefully stop a running Fishnet process: 
fishnet stop
This sends a SIGTERM signal and waits up to 10 seconds for graceful shutdown. If the process was started by the CLI, the PID file is automatically cleaned up.

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Environment Variables

Fishnet supports several environment variables for configuration:
VariableDefaultDescription
FISHNET_HOST127.0.0.1Host address to bind to
FISHNET_PORT8473Port to listen on
OPENAI_BASE_URL-Agent should point to http://localhost:8473/proxy/openai
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL-Agent should point to http://localhost:8473/proxy/anthropic
FISHNET_DEV-Set to 1 to enable development mode features
Agent environments should configure their base URLs to point through Fishnet:
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8473/proxy/openai"
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8473/proxy/anthropic"

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Service Installation

For production deployments, install Fishnet as a system service to start automatically on boot.
1

Preview the install plan

fishnet service install
This shows what will be installed without making changes.
2

Apply the installation

fishnet service install --apply
Creates ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.fishnet.local.plist and loads the agent.
3

Verify it's running

launchctl list | grep fishnet
fishnet status

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Uninstall

fishnet service uninstall --apply

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Docker Deployment

Run Fishnet in a container with persistent vault storage:
1

Build and start the container

make docker-up
This builds the image and starts the container in detached mode.
2

View logs

make docker-logs
3

Stop the container

make docker-down

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Docker Compose Configuration

docker-compose.yml
services:
  fishnet:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "8473:8473"
    volumes:
      - fishnet-data:/var/lib/fishnet
    environment:
      - FISHNET_HOST=0.0.0.0
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  fishnet-data:

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Status Monitoring

Check the current runtime status: 
fishnet status
Example output: 
Status: running
PID: 12345
Uptime: 3h 24m
Active alerts: 2 (critical: 0, warning: 2)
Today's spend (USD):
  openai           $0.042500
  anthropic        $0.018300
Today's requests:
  openai           47
  anthropic        23

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Process Management

Fishnet uses a PID file stored in the data directory to track running processes:
  • PID file location: ~/.local/share/fishnet/fishnet.pid (Linux) or ~/Library/Application Support/Fishnet/fishnet.pid (macOS)
  • Graceful shutdown: SIGTERM/SIGINT handlers ensure proper cleanup
  • State persistence: All databases are flushed before shutdown
If you see “already running” errors when starting Fishnet, use fishnet stop first to clean up any stale processes.

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Health Checks

Use the doctor command to validate your Fishnet installation: 
fishnet doctor
This checks:
  • Process running status
  • Credential vault accessibility
  • Agent environment variable configuration
  • Upstream API reachability
For JSON output: 
fishnet doctor --json

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