Hot Reload

Caution

This page intentionally distinguishes between source-backed behavior and design-intent behavior. Several rows in the tables below are marked UNKNOWN because they have not been independently confirmed against app source; treat those rows as conditional rather than guaranteed.

ChannelWatch v1.0 watches /config/settings.json for changes. When you save settings through the web UI, the application reloads the affected components without restarting the container. The sections below describe what is known to reload, what requires a restart, and where the behavior is not yet confirmed.

Reload-vs-restart matrix

The table below covers every setting category that has been documented. Source confidence reflects whether the behavior has been independently confirmed in app source or is based on the page’s stated design intent.

Setting category	Behavior on save	Source confidence
DVR servers	Changed DVRs are re-initialized; unchanged DVRs keep running	UNKNOWN — plausible from design intent, not independently confirmed in app source
Alert settings	New thresholds, cooldowns, and toggles apply to the next alert event	UNKNOWN — plausible, not independently confirmed
Notification providers	Updated credentials and provider settings apply to the next delivery attempt	UNKNOWN — plausible, not independently confirmed
Notification templates	Custom message templates apply to the next notification	UNKNOWN — plausible, not independently confirmed
Logging verbosity	Log level switches immediately (Standard or Verbose)	UNKNOWN — plausible, not independently confirmed
Network binding (host and port)	Requires restart — the HTTP server binds at startup; rebinding requires stopping and restarting the process	Plausible (standard HTTP server behavior), not independently confirmed
Database URL	Requires restart — the database connection is established at startup; changing it requires a fresh connection pool	Plausible, not independently confirmed
Notification plugins	Requires restart — the plugin loader runs once at startup	UNKNOWN — stated as design intent, not independently confirmed in app source

Note

UNKNOWN does not mean the behavior is wrong. It means the behavior has not been traced to a specific code path in the current app source yet, so you should confirm the result in logs before relying on it operationally.

What reloads automatically

Based on the design intent for v1.0, these settings are expected to take effect when you save them in the web UI:

Setting category	What happens on save
DVR servers	Changed DVRs are re-initialized; unchanged DVRs keep running without interruption (UNKNOWN — not independently confirmed)
Alert settings	New thresholds, cooldowns, and toggles apply to the next alert event (UNKNOWN — not independently confirmed)
Notification providers	Updated credentials and provider settings apply to the next delivery attempt (UNKNOWN — not independently confirmed)
Notification templates	Custom message templates apply to the next notification (UNKNOWN — not independently confirmed)
Logging verbosity	Log level switches immediately (Standard or Verbose) (UNKNOWN — not independently confirmed)

When a DVR’s configuration changes, the design intent is that ChannelWatch cancels that DVR’s monitoring task and spawns a new one with the updated settings. DVRs whose configuration did not change are not touched.

What requires a restart

A small number of settings cannot be changed at runtime. These require a full container restart to take effect:

Setting	Why a restart is required
Network binding (host and port)	The HTTP server binds to the port at startup; rebinding requires stopping and restarting the process
Database URL	The database connection is established at startup; changing it requires a fresh connection pool

To apply any of these changes:

1. Update the value in your compose file or environment variables.
2. Run docker compose down && docker compose up -d (or the equivalent for your setup).

Caution

Changing the network binding or database URL while the container is running has no effect. The old values remain active until the next restart.

Notification plugins and hot reload

Notification provider plugins (files in /config/plugins/notifications/) are not hot-reloaded according to the documented design intent. The plugin loader is expected to run once at startup. To activate a new plugin or update an existing one, restart the container.

Note

UNKNOWN — plugin hot-reload behavior has not been independently confirmed in app source. Treat the “requires restart” guidance here as the safe operational default unless source verification or runtime testing proves otherwise.

See Provider Plugins for details on the plugin system.

Direct file edits

You can edit /config/settings.json directly on disk instead of using the web UI. According to the v1.0 design, ChannelWatch detects the file change and reloads in the same way as a web UI save.

Note

UNKNOWN — direct-file-edit detection has not been independently confirmed in app source. The web UI save path is the recommended and primary configuration surface. If you edit the file directly, verify the reload completed by checking the application logs.

The web UI is the recommended path because it validates your input before writing to disk. Direct edits bypass that validation. If the new configuration is invalid, ChannelWatch is designed to log an error and keep the previous configuration active rather than applying a broken config.

Verifying a reload

After saving settings, check the application logs to confirm the reload completed. The following is an illustrative example of the log format. The exact log string (CONFIG_RELOADED) has not been independently confirmed in app source and may differ in the shipped release:

INFO  CONFIG_RELOADED: dvr_servers[0].port changed (8089 -> 8090); DVR task re-initialized

Note

UNKNOWN — the CONFIG_RELOADED log string above is illustrative. The exact log entry format has not been confirmed against app source. The actual string may differ when v1.0 ships.

Related pages

• Core Settings — timezone, log level, log retention, and alert toggles
• DVR Connection — add and manage Channels DVR servers
• Provider Plugins — third-party notification providers (require restart to activate)
• Delivery Log — notification history and retry status