Function startAutomationBackend

scripts/dev-with-automation.mjs:827–926

(config)

}

function startAutomationBackend(config) {
  logService(
    "automation",
    `Starting on port ${config.autoBackendPort}...`,
    c.green,
  );

  const automationCmd = buildAutomationCommand(process.env);
  logService("automation", `Using ${automationCmd.source}`, c.dim);

  spawnService(
    "automation",
    automationCmd.command,
    [
      ...automationCmd.args,
      "--host",
      "127.0.0.1",
      "--port",
      config.autoBackendPort.toString(),
    ],
    {
      cwd: config.stateDir,
      env: {
        // Force UTF-8 for all Python file I/O (same reason as agent-server;
        // see buildAgentServerEnv in dev-safe.mjs).
        PYTHONUTF8: "1",
        OPENHANDS_REMOTE_WS_READY_REQUIRED:
          process.env.OPENHANDS_REMOTE_WS_READY_REQUIRED || "false",
        // The URL the automation backend itself uses to call the
        // agent-server's REST API (tarball upload + bash dispatch).
        //
        // Priority:
        //   1. AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL explicitly set in the user's env
        //   2. `localhost:<agentServerPort>`
        AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL:
          process.env.AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL ||
          `http://localhost:${config.agentServerPort}`,
        // The URL exported into the in-sandbox bash chain as
        // `AGENT_SERVER_URL` (read by main.py / setup.sh to call back into
        // the agent-server).
        //
        // Priority:
        //   1. AUTOMATION_SANDBOX_AGENT_SERVER_URL explicitly set in env
        //   2. launcher-provided value
        //   3. unset — backend falls back to AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_URL
        ...(process.env.AUTOMATION_SANDBOX_AGENT_SERVER_URL ||
        config.sandboxAgentServerUrl
          ? {
              AUTOMATION_SANDBOX_AGENT_SERVER_URL:
                process.env.AUTOMATION_SANDBOX_AGENT_SERVER_URL ||
                config.sandboxAgentServerUrl,
            }
          : {}),
        AUTOMATION_AGENT_SERVER_API_KEY: config.sessionApiKey,
        // ~/.openhands/automation/automations.db — matches docker/entrypoint.sh.
        AUTOMATION_DB_URL: `sqlite+aiosqlite:///${join(dirname(config.stateDir), SHARED_DEFAULTS.paths.automationDb)}`,
        // The automation backend uses this as its publicly-reachable base
        // URL: it's appended to callback URLs and injected into each