Project configuration

Discovery and precedence

Doorman searches upward from the current directory for the first directory containing doorman.json or package.json. It reads project settings there. A readable doorman.json takes precedence over the package.json doorman block; the two are not merged.

doorman.json

{
  "name": "shop",
  "script": "dev:app",
  "appPort": 3000
}

Field	Default	Meaning
name	Inferred	DNS-safe route name, including nested names such as api.shop
script	dev	Package script run when no explicit command is supplied
appPort	Free port in 4000–4999	Backend port for the main checkout; linked worktrees use a free port

Omit appPort unless you need a fixed backend port. The example’s dev:app must exist in your package scripts.

The package alternative accepts an object with the same fields or a name string:

package.json (relevant field)

{ "doorman": "shop" }

Route naming prefers an explicit --name, then the configured name, package name (scope stripped), Git-root folder, and current project folder. Linked worktrees add a branch prefix when available.

Environment passed to the app

Variable	Value
PORT	Selected backend port
HOST	127.0.0.1
DOORMAN_URL	Primary .localhost URL, including the HTTPS port if needed
DOORMAN_NAME	Effective route name, including a worktree prefix
NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS	Local CA certificate path when available

These are server-process variables. A framework may require its own mechanism to expose values to browser code. Bypass mode (DOORMAN=0) does not inject them.

Frameworks and ports

Doorman adds port flags for recognized Vite, Astro, Angular, React Router, Wrangler, webpack-dev-server, Expo, React Native, and Storybook commands, including supported package-script wrappers. Servers that already honor PORT can use the injected variable.

Compound scripts (&&, pipes, environment prefixes) are left untouched. For an unrecognized server, configure it to honor PORT or register its known port using a fixed route. Doorman also supplies Vite’s additional allowed-hosts environment variable for local suffixes.

Daemon environment

Variable	Default / purpose
DOORMAN_HTTPS_PORT	443, falling back to 3443
DOORMAN_HTTP_PORT	80, falling back to 3210
DOORMAN_PROXY_PORT	Legacy HTTP-port variable
DOORMAN_HTTPS	HTTPS enabled; 0 disables it
DOORMAN_DNS_PORT	53535
DOORMAN_DAEMON_PATH	Override daemon binary discovery
DOORMAN	Set to 0 to bypass managed routing when running an app

Listener settings apply when the daemon starts. An already-running daemon does not adopt changes from a new shell. Ensure the intended environment is present in the process starting it.