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magus-run

Run a target for selected projects

Synopsis

magus run <target> [flags] [project...] | magus run [<target>] --stdin [--shard <id>] < plan.json

Description

Run a named target for the selected projects. With no project arguments, selects the project containing the current directory, or all projects if the current directory is not inside a project. Explicit project paths on the command line select exactly those projects.

--skip subtracts from whatever that selection resolved to, so a CI step can gate every project except a named few without any shell filtering. It takes the same project reference a positional does, and refuses a reference no project matches rather than skipping nothing quietly.

The target ci is an ordinary magusfile-defined target - magus does not hardcode its steps; your magusfile composes them with magus.needs. magus keeps ci as the anchor that the affected set keys off, and always runs it read-only; apply the rw charm (e.g. 'magus run format:rw') to mutate files.

--stdin runs a saved shard plan instead of a selection: the document magus affected <target> --plan printed, piped in or redirected from a file (< plan.json). The plan names the target and each shard's projects, so the target positional is optional (give it to add charms, as in ci:gha) and project positionals are refused. --shard <id> runs that one shard; without it every shard runs here. A malformed plan, a shard id the plan does not have, a target other than the plan's, or an --n-shards other than its count is refused before anything runs (MGS3029). Under the global --dry-run nothing runs: the plan is checked and printed, and -o json, yaml or template renders the document as read, so a saved plan renders more than once without being computed again.

Options

--depth int
With --graph: cap displayed depth (0 = unlimited)
--detach
Run in the background as its own session, writing to a log under $XDG_STATE_HOME/magus/detached/; prints the pid and the log path and returns. Needs no server
--graph
Render the dependency graph for the selected scope instead of executing
--n-shards int
Without --stdin: the shard count the --shard label belongs to. With it the count is the saved plan's, and a different value is refused
--no-cache
Force a fresh run even on a cache hit; still refreshes the entry
--no-default-charms
Ignore magus.yaml default_charms for this run
--no-redundancy-check
Run the full ci gate: no deferral and no tier reduction (MGS3010); ci target only
--no-volatility-retry
Disable volatility auto-retry for this run
--open
Open this run in the browser log viewer and stream to it as it goes (loopback; never leaves your machine)
--race string
Race diagnostics: watch, replay, or watch,replay. watch flags a write two projects both claim (MGS4001, 4002, 4004). replay reruns cacheable projects in sequence and compares output hashes for non-determinism (MGS4003), at double the time.
--shard string
With --stdin: run only the saved plan's shard with this id. Without it: a label naming this run's shard in a CI matrix, paired with --n-shards; it selects nothing
--skip string
Exclude projects from the selection; repeatable or comma-separated. Takes project references like positionals, or a doublestar glob over project paths (libs/*); a value matching nothing is an error
--stdin
Run the shards of a saved shard plan, the document affected --plan prints, read from stdin; the plan names the target and the projects
--step
Pause before each subprocess for interactive stepping (needs a TTY; implies --concurrency=1)
--timeout duration
Abort if the run has not finished within this duration (e.g. 5m, 1h30m)
--upstream
With --graph: show dependents instead of dependencies

Operands

ls
Print selected projects without executing anything
build
Build selected projects
test
Test selected projects
lint
Lint selected projects (read-only)
format
Format source files in selected projects
clean
Remove declared outputs from selected projects
generate
Run code generation for selected projects
ci
Run the magusfile's ci target read-only (affected-set anchor)

Exit status

0
Every selected project's target succeeded, whether it ran or replayed from cache.
1
At least one target failed. The failure was already reported with the path to its captured log, so there is no second error line here. This is the default failure status, not the only one: a magusfile calling os.exit(code) has that code honored verbatim, so a target may exit with a status this list does not name.
2
Misuse: an unknown target, no project matched the filters, a flag that does not apply to this invocation, or a saved plan that cannot be run as asked (MGS3029).
75
Nothing ran, and trying again later would succeed; 75 is EX_TEMPFAIL, the transient-failure convention. A selected project's workspace lock or the machine's build budget was held by another magus invocation (magus never queues behind one; the error names the holder's pid, command and directory), or a ci gate was deferred as redundant under load (MGS3010; the error names the green gate it found and --no-redundancy-check overrides).

Examples

Build everything

magus run build

Test one project

magus run test api/gateway

Build two specific projects

magus run build api/gateway web/studio

Every project that declares generate except two

magus run generate --skip docs --skip console

Dry-run: show what would run

magus run build --dry-run

Force a fresh rebuild past a cache hit

magus run build --no-cache

Full CI pipeline

magus run ci

Show dependency graph for build target

magus run build --graph

Graph in DOT format

magus run build --graph -o dot

Graph dependents of api/gateway

magus run build api/gateway --graph --upstream

Stream JSONL target events to a file

magus run build -o jsonl --tee build.jsonl

Run every shard of the affected ci plan here

magus affected ci --plan | magus run --stdin

Run one shard of a saved plan

magus run ci:gha --stdin --shard 2 < plan.json

Render a saved plan's summary without computing it again

magus run --stdin --dry-run -o 'template={{.summary}}' < plan.json

See Also

magus(1), magus-ls(1), magus-describe(1), magus-where(1), magus-affected(1), magus-x(1), magus-clean(1), magus-shell(1), magus-query(1), magus-refs(1), magus-explain(1), magus-path(1), magus-graph(1), magus-diff(1), magus-vcs(1), magus-session(1), magus-job(1), magus-notes(1), magus-queue(1), magus-watch(1), magus-events(1), magus-server(1), magus-broker(1), magus-mcp(1), magus-status(1), magus-buzz(1), magus-spell(1), magus-agent(1), magus-init(1), magus-doctor(1), magus-config(1), magus-completion(1), magus-man(1), magus-self(1), magus-version(1)

ManpagePages in this section. ChangelogEvery change to magus, newest first, in Keep a Changelog format, starting with the unreleased entries. Generated from changes/unreleased/ and releases/*.yaml. magus commandStandalone build orchestrator and content-addressed cache for polyglot monorepos, with workspace-aware subcommands for build, test, lint, and inspect. magus affectedRun a target for every project affected by a VCS diff, with forensic modes for explain, graph, CI shard plan, and regression bisect.
generatedinternal/commands/registry.goclimagus runruntargetbuildtestci
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Glossary

Workspace

The magus root directory that owns a set of projects and shared config; the unit magus operates over. Workspace in full.

Project

A directory magus recognizes as a unit of work (it has a magusfile); the unit of caching, scheduling, and dependency tracking. Project in full.

Magusfile

The magusfile.buzz that declares a project's targets (as export funs) and binds its spells. Magusfile in full.

Target

A named operation (build, test, ...) you invoke with magus run <target>; it may compose a spell's tool-native operations and depend on other targets. Target in full.

Op

A single tool-native command a target composes (long form: operation); the middle of the work hierarchy (Spell to Op to Target). Op in full.

Spell

A language/runtime adapter (e.g. go, md) that maps generic targets onto a toolchain's real commands. Spell in full.

Charm

An execution modifier attached with : (lint:rw) that changes how a target runs, not which one; the built-in rw flips a check-only target to mutate in place, and ci always strips it. Charm in full.

Buzz

The language magusfiles are written in (the .buzz engine). Buzz in full.

Cache

The content-addressed store magus consults before running a target, so unchanged work is skipped. Cache in full.

Affected

The set of projects touched by a change; magus affected <target> runs a target only over them. Affected in full.

Broker

The per-user background process that holds this host's capacity: the machine budget every run claims slots from, and the shared services runs keep warm. A run starts it on demand; broker: off in magus.yaml runs without one. Broker in full.

CI

An ordinary target you compose yourself with ctx.needs; magus does not hardcode its stages. It is the anchor magus affected ci keys off, and ci strips the rw charm. CI in full.

Concurrency

How many targets run at once. It is bounded by the pool's capacity and set with --concurrency, MAGUS_CONCURRENCY, or the concurrency config key. Concurrency in full.

Volatility

A target that fails once and passes on rerun is volatile, as opposed to a regression that started failing and stays failing. magus keeps per-target pass/fail history and a Wilson-score volatility rate to tell them apart and auto-retry the noise. Volatility in full.

MAGUS.md

The committed routing index at a workspace root, regenerated from the knowledge graph: it lists every node and points at the exact query for a given question, so it is the entry point an agent reads first. MAGUS.md in full.

Agent

A model working through an agent host such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode. magus treats an agent as one more caller of its CLI, MCP tools and console, held to the same checks as a person. Agent in full.

Session

An agent host's conversation, by the id the host delivers to its hooks. magus never mints one: a record with no session is unattributed, and the OS user it carries says whose account ran it. Session in full.

Invocation

One magus process's recorded facts (the targets it finished, their outcomes, the lease it acted as, and the session it ran in when a host delivered one), kept in a repo-scoped store every worktree shares. magus session lists them; the store prunes itself by last-fact age. Invocation in full.

Job

The unit of delegated work, and one row of the job store: what an orchestrating agent handed out, with its goal, the checkpoint it was cut against, the paths it may write or must not touch, and the one check it runs. A job's holder is either a session, for work an orchestrator handed out, or the daemon, for its own maintenance. The store records; the agent guard is what reads those facts back when grading a write. Job in full.

Run

One target executing under one magus invocation, such as magus run test web or magus affected ci. A run keeps its captured output behind an output reference. Every magus run is a run whether or not any job asked for it; see Job for how the two relate. Run in full.

Conventions

This page uses none of the site's convention markers. The full set is on the conventions page.