Starting & Stopping Simulated Servers
Simulated servers run locally on your machine, listening on a configured port. You can control them from the Studio IDE or the CLI.
From Aethrix Studio
Starting a Server
- Open Service Simulation from the left navigation.
- Select the server from the server selector strip at the top. The current instance is shown as a tag (e.g. Default / Unique).
- Click Start.
The server begins listening and its status dot turns green. Incoming requests appear in the Diagnostics panel at the bottom of the view.
Stopping a Server
- Select the running server from the server selector strip.
- Click Stop.
The server stops accepting connections. Existing responses and configuration are preserved.
Server Status Indicators
Each server in the selector shows a colored status dot:
| Indicator | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ● Green | Server is running and accepting requests (Started) |
| ● Gray | Server is stopped (Stopped) |
| ● Red | Server is in an error state (Error) |
From the CLI
Starting
# List available simulation servers
aeth sim start
# Start a specific server by name
aeth sim start MyHttpServer
# Start all configured servers
aeth sim start all
Live Output
When started via CLI, the terminal shows a live feed of incoming messages (service, URI, matched response, status, delay):
2026-08-26 14:32:15 | Service: GetOrders | Uri: /api/orders | Response: Default | Status: 200 | Delay: 0ms
2026-08-26 14:32:18 | Service: CreateOrder | Uri: /api/orders | Response: Created | Status: 201 | Delay: 150ms
2026-08-26 14:32:21 | Service: GetUser | Uri: /api/users/456 | Response: NotFound | Status: 404 | Delay: 0ms
Press Ctrl+C to stop the server (all servers started by the command are stopped).
Listing Available Servers
Run aeth sim start without a server name to list all configured servers:
Available simulation servers:
1. HttpServer (Instance: Default) - Aethrix.HttpMockServer
2. SoapServer (Instance: Default) - Aethrix.SoapMockServer
Server Configuration
TLS Certificates for HTTPS
When a server is configured with HTTPS enabled (or HTTP/2 for gRPC), a development certificate is required. The server uses the managed development certificate from the Certificate tab in Settings.
If no development certificate is available at startup, the server still starts and serves HTTP; the HTTPS listener is not created, and the reason is logged in the server's diagnostics.
To create a certificate:
- From Studio: Open Settings → Certificate and click Initialize, then Trust.
- From CLI: Run
aeth cert initand optionallyaeth cert trust. Other actions:aeth cert check,aeth cert renew,aeth cert remove. - For CI/CD: Run
aeth cert init --in-memory(or setAETHRIX_HTTPS_EPHEMERAL=1). Servers then generate a throwaway certificate at each start, which avoids the administrator or keychain approval a store write would otherwise ask for. That certificate is not persisted, not trusted, and gets a new fingerprint every run — enough for a pipeline that calls its own simulation server, not for a browser you want to stop warning.
How trust is installed depends on the platform. On Windows the certificate is added to the CurrentUser Root store (run Aethrix or the CLI from an elevated prompt; the OS shows a confirmation dialog). On macOS the certificate gets per-user trust settings silently; if the system refuses that, an admin authorization dialog appears for system-wide trust. On Linux it is added to the per-user trust store used by .NET (browsers and non-.NET tools keep their own stores).
Port and Binding
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Binding Address | Binding address (use * to listen on all interfaces) | * |
| Http Port | TCP port for plain HTTP | 8080 |
| Https Enabled | Whether to also bind an HTTPS listener | false |
| Https Port | TCP port for HTTPS | 443 |
Configure these in the Configuration tab of the Service Simulation view.
Multiple Instances
Each server can have multiple instances (e.g. Default, Unique). The instance name is shown as a tag next to the server name in the toolbar.
In Automation Tests
Use the Service Simulation Control step to start/stop servers as part of automated test execution.
Diagnostics
The Diagnostics panel at the bottom of the Service Simulation view shows a live text log of:
- Timestamp of each request
- Matched URL handler (service / operation)
- Selected response (which variant)
- Response status code
- Response time (including configured delay)
Use the chevron toggle in the panel header to collapse or expand the diagnostics area.