Server Management

Start, stop, restart, and inspect the PMXT local server from your SDK code.

The PMXT SDKs manage a local server automatically. When you create an exchange instance without a hosted API key, the SDK spawns a local server process, waits for it to become healthy, and routes every request through it.

The server namespace gives you explicit control over that local server lifecycle.

Quick reference

Method	Description
server.start()	Start the local server if it is not already running (idempotent).
server.stop()	Stop the running local server (SIGTERM + lock file cleanup).
server.restart()	Stop then start.
server.status()	Structured snapshot: running, pid, port, version, uptime.
server.health()	true/True if /health responds OK, false/False otherwise.
server.logs(n)	Last n lines from ~/.pmxt/server.log (default 50).

Start

Idempotent. If the local server is already running and healthy, returns immediately. Otherwise spawns pmxt-ensure-server and waits for the health check.

Python

import pmxt

pmxt.server.start()

TypeScript

import pmxt from "pmxtjs";

await pmxt.server.start();

You rarely need to call start() yourself — creating an exchange instance (e.g. pmxt.Polymarket()) calls it automatically.

Stop

Reads the lock file at ~/.pmxt/server.lock, sends SIGTERM to the local server process, and removes the lock file.

Python

pmxt.server.stop()

TypeScript

await pmxt.server.stop();

Restart

Equivalent to stop() followed by start().

Python

pmxt.server.restart()

TypeScript

await pmxt.server.restart();

Status

Returns a structured snapshot of the local server state. A new object is returned on every call (no shared mutable references).

Python

info = pmxt.server.status()
print(info)
# {
#   "running": True,
#   "pid": 4242,
#   "port": 3847,
#   "version": "2.30.9",
#   "uptime_seconds": 3612.5,
#   "lock_file": "/Users/you/.pmxt/server.lock"
# }

TypeScript

const info = await pmxt.server.status();
console.log(info);
// {
//   running: true,
//   pid: 4242,
//   port: 3847,
//   version: "2.30.9",
//   uptimeSeconds: 3612.5,
//   lockFile: "/Users/you/.pmxt/server.lock"
// }

Field	Type	Description
running	bool	Whether the local server is alive and responding to /health.
pid	int | null	Process ID from the lock file.
port	int | null	Port the local server is listening on (default 3847).
version	string | null	Server version from the lock file.
uptime_seconds / uptimeSeconds	float | null	Seconds since the lock file was written.
lock_file / lockFile	string	Absolute path to ~/.pmxt/server.lock.

Health

Returns true/True if the local server’s /health endpoint responds with {"status": "ok"}, false/False otherwise.

Python

if pmxt.server.health():
    print("local server is up")

TypeScript

if (await pmxt.server.health()) {
  console.log("local server is up");
}

Logs

Returns the last n lines from ~/.pmxt/server.log. Defaults to 50. Returns an empty list/array if the log file does not exist.

Python

for line in pmxt.server.logs(20):
    print(line)

TypeScript

pmxt.server.logs(20).forEach((line) => console.log(line));

Deprecated aliases

The top-level stop_server() / stopServer() and restart_server() / restartServer() functions still work but emit deprecation warnings. Use the server namespace instead.

# Old (deprecated)
pmxt.stop_server()

# New
pmxt.server.stop()

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
PMXT_ALWAYS_RESTART=1	Force-restart the local server on every ensure_server_running / ensureServerRunning call (useful during development).