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Ability to reload/restart/etc the application from the console while running "wails dev" #3800

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Description

@vvalio

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

It would ease the development process and make it more comfortable if vite-style commands were supported within the console when running wails dev.

I believe in most react-vite applications, we can do 'r' to reload, 'q' to quit, etc to control the actions of the development server. This would be extremely handy in Wails. I believe Wails even uses Vite internally, so this could certainly be implemented?

Describe the solution you'd like

Certain keystrokes in the wails dev -console should execute certain actions, including but not limited to

  • server reload (r)
  • server restart (R)
  • server shutdown (q)
  • help text; showing the keystrokes and their meanings on the console (h)

Other possible features could perhaps be

  • recompilation of the Golang backend and then reloading the app (c)

Describe alternatives you've considered

  • adding a trigger to Vite to reload the frontend
  • utilizing basic HMR that already comes with Vite (and subsequently Wails)

Additional context

No response

Activity

  1. nickolasgregory commented on Oct 3, 2024

    @nickolasgregory

    I've found "Air - Live reload for Go apps" very effective when developing the go backend.
    It simply does what it says - no keystroke required.

    Aside: I primarily develop the frontend in Svelte, which uses vite, and wails does the Live reload seamlessly.

  2. moved this to Backlog in v3 Backlogon Feb 1, 2026
  3. added this to the Future milestone on Oct 13, 2026
  4. taliesin-ai commented on Oct 15, 2026

    @taliesin-ai
    Collaborator

    Hi there! Thanks for the suggestion. I'll leave this open for us to consider when planning future work.

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