Team Adoption

Get one environment working on your machine, then have a teammate reproduce it from a fresh checkout. Start with the services needed for one development task.

First YAML

Save an orbit.yaml beside a project and describe its startup command, port, and dependencies. For a first try without an app, put this example in an empty folder with Python 3 installed. Run the commands from that folder.

version: "3"
services:
  app:
    kind: frontend
    command: python3 -m http.server "$PORT"
    ports:
      http: 28080

orbit doctor
orbit up
orbit open app

When the browser opens the local server, the YAML is working. Run orbit down when finished. For a real project, start with one endpoint you can test, then add the containers or services it needs. See the local-first guide for the onboarding prompt.

Runtime Configuration

A service that always calls a staging URL still calls staging when you start it locally. Make that URL configurable so the same code can use a local service on your machine and the staging service after deployment.

What to configure	What to verify locally
Listen port	The app binds to Orbit's $PORT, as in the first YAML.
Service or SDK endpoint	The app or SDK reads an override such as CATALOG_API_URL. Orbit can provide it when the app declares depends_on: [catalog-api] and that service has an HTTP endpoint.
Database connection and test data	The app accepts a local connection string. Publish the schema and seed a named test database before exercising a flow that uses it.

Run one request that uses the dependency and verify it reaches the local instance. For database setup, see SQL Server Database Projects and E2E testing.

Environment Repository

For one app repo, commit the working orbit.yaml alongside the app. A teammate can check it out and repeat the same commands. For a stack that spans several repos, put the environment in a shared Git repo as envs/dev.yaml. Use paths such as path: ${WORKSPACE_ROOT}/api and tell teammates which repos to check out under that workspace. Keep credentials in each developer's local configuration.

From the workspace root, select the shared environment and verify the project paths. Use a directory with no project-local orbit.yaml in it or its parents, since Orbit checks that file first.

orbit init --source team --url https://github.com/example/team-envs.git --env dev
orbit env info
orbit doctor
orbit up

Replace the example URL with the team repo. Confirm orbit env info shows team/dev, then repeat the browser or API check. See environment sources for maintaining the shared repo and rolling out updates.