Edit a server in your editor

A server's files live in its repository, not in Sokie: a deploy is Sokie's shared runtime plus a bundle built from sokie.json, the spec and a Markdown file per tool. So you change a server in your own editor, try it with sokie dev, and let git take it to production. sokie edit sets that up in one command.

Before you start

• The server is linked to a GitHub repository, and you can read that repository with git.
• You're signed in: sokie login.
• Your editor's command is on your PATH: code for VS Code, cursor for Cursor, zed for Zed. In VS Code or Cursor, run Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH (or 'cursor') from the command palette; in Zed, run zed: install cli. Any other editor works through $VISUAL or $EDITOR.

Open the server

On the server's page, choose Edit locally in the header or on the Overview's Edit locally tile, or press L. Pick your editor and copy the command. The app remembers your pick. Or type it yourself:

$ sokie edit majestic-lobster-123 --editor cursor
Cloning your-org/petstore into /Users/you/code/petstore…
Opened it in Cursor.
Starting sokie dev…
✓ Running Petstore: 19 tools, private (1154ms)

  Server     http://127.0.0.1:8787/mcp
  Inspector  http://127.0.0.1:8788

  Watching for edits. Ctrl+C stops.

It does three things:

1. Clones the repository, or uses your clone. If the folder you're in is already a clone of the linked repository, that's the one. Otherwise it clones into ./<name>, as git clone would, and says where. A second run from the same place finds that clone again. Pass --dir <path> for a clone you keep somewhere else, or an empty folder to clone into. It never clones into a folder that already holds something else.
2. Opens the folder in your editor. With --editor vscode, cursor or zed it uses that editor's command. Without --editor, or when the command isn't on your PATH, it uses $VISUAL or $EDITOR. If none of those is set, it prints the folder's path so you can open it yourself.
3. Starts sokie dev in the server's folder. The real runtime on your machine, reloading on every save. In a monorepo, that's the path the link names. The inspector's address is printed rather than opened, since your editor just took the screen.

With no slug, sokie edit uses the server the folder you're in is linked to. Add --no-dev to open the editor and stop there.

Get changes to production

Commit on a branch and push it. A pull request into the default branch gets its own preview server, rebuilt on every push, so you can try the change before anyone else calls it. Merge it, and the default branch deploys to production. Deploys and previews has the details.

Secrets for sokie dev go in .sokie/dev.env, which must stay out of git. sokie edit adds .sokie/ to .gitignore if it isn't there already.

A server with no repository

A server deployed from your machine with sokie deploy and never linked has no repository to clone, and Sokie keeps no copy of its files to hand back. Go to the folder you deployed from, link it, and edit there:

$ sokie link your-org/petstore --server majestic-lobster-123