# Controlling the lifecycle

To control the lifecycle of an application use the wolkenkit CLI.

# Starting an application

To start an application run the start command from within the application directory:

$ wolkenkit start

If you want to change the port the application binds to, provide the --port flag and a port number. This flag takes precedence over the value that is registered in the package.json file:

$ wolkenkit start --port 4000

Either way, the CLI downloads and installs the required runtime automatically for you, the first time you start an application may take a few minutes. Every subsequent start will be way faster.

# Restarting an application

From time to time you may need to restart an application, e.g. if you have made changes to its code. To do so run the reload command. This command takes care of preserving your data, even if you do not store your data permanently:

$ wolkenkit reload

If you want to restart the entire application, including its infrastructure services, run the restart command:

$ wolkenkit restart

# Stopping an application

To stop an application, run the stop command:

$ wolkenkit stop

# Verifying the application status

To verify whether an application is set up correctly, run the health command:

$ wolkenkit health

To verify whether an application is running, run the status command:

$ wolkenkit status