> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.2501.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # start > CLI reference for 2501 runner start ```bash theme={null} 2501 runner start -s [options] ``` ## Execution Flow Every `2501 runner start` call goes through these phases: **Pre-flight**: validates the environment: configuration load, DB connectivity, org/tenant/user IDs, gateway connectivity, and Ansible availability. **Scenario Discovery**: scans the scenarios directory, loads all `scenario.json` files, resolves the `-s` argument against available keys and tags. **Per-Scenario Loop**: for each matched scenario (and each iteration when `-i` > 1): * **Provision**: resolve host and agent from the DB (or boot a VM clone in `incus`/`lima` mode) * **Prepare**: run `restore.yml` silently to clear stale state, then run `prepare.yml` (abort if it fails) * **Flush**: flush memory for the scenario's agents * **Execute**: create a ticket through the selected gateway, then poll until the job is found and completes * **Validate**: evaluate the validation rules declared in `scenario.json`, and run `validate.yml` if the scenario declares it * **Restore / Teardown**: in `host` mode run `restore.yml` to reset the host (non-fatal if it fails); in VM modes destroy the clone **Report**: prints a summary table and persists a `Benchmark` plus per-scenario `ScenarioReport` rows to the DB. The process exits `0` unless a pre-flight or infrastructure error occurs, or `--fail-on-error` is set and at least one scenario failed. *** ## Options | Option | Default | Description | | - | - | - | | `-s, --scenarios ` | required | Scenario keys or tags, comma-separated. Mix freely. | | `--source ` | `git` | Where scenarios are loaded from: `git` \| `fs` | | `-m, --mode ` | `host` | Execution mode: `host` \| `incus` \| `lima` | | `-g, --gateway ` | `runner` | Gateway used to submit tickets: `runner` \| `servicenow` | | `-i, --iter ` | `1` | Number of iterations per scenario | | `-p, --scenarios-path ` | auto-detected | Path to the scenarios root directory | | `--vm-templates-path ` | auto-detected | Path to the VM templates directory (`incus`/`lima` modes) | | `--env-file ` | auto-detected | Path to the env file (falls back to `process.env`) | | `--main-engine ` | | Override the main engine for all agents in this run | | `--secondary-engine ` | | Override the secondary engine for all agents in this run | | `--specialty ` | | Override the specialty for all agents in this run | | `--gateway-engine ` | | Override the tenant `llm_model` for all tickets submitted via the runner gateway | | `--gateway-multimodal-engine ` | | Override the tenant `multimodal_llm_model` for all tickets submitted via the runner gateway | | `--parallel` | | Run scenarios concurrently using available RAM. Requires `--mode incus` or `--mode lima`. | | `--parallel-ram-cap ` | | Cap the RAM budget for parallel execution in GB. Requires `--parallel`. | | `--fail-on-error` | | Exit with code 1 if any scenario fails | | `--log-file ` | | Mirror all output (ANSI-stripped) to a file | | `-v` / `-vv` | | `-v`: show failed checks. `-vv`: show all checks with full debug content. | *** ## Gateways The `-g, --gateway` flag controls how each scenario's ticket is submitted. Every scenario is dispatched by creating a ticket; the runner then waits for the resulting job to complete. **`--gateway runner`** (default): POSTs directly to the engine's runner gateway endpoint. Requires `ENGINE_API_URL` and `ENGINE_API_KEY`. ```bash theme={null} 2501 runner start -s nginx/001-broken-config --gateway runner ``` **`--gateway servicenow`**: creates an incident in ServiceNow, exercising the full integration (gateway to job to agent to ticket resolution). Requires the `SERVICENOW_*` env vars. ```bash theme={null} 2501 runner start -s nginx/001-broken-config --gateway servicenow ``` *** ## Scenario Source The `--source` flag controls where scenario files come from. **`--source git`** (default): clones the repository given by `GIT_RUNNER_REPOSITORY` (branch `GIT_REF`, default `main`) using `GIT_RUNNER_PAT`, then reads scenarios from the clone. With `--scenarios-path`, the path is resolved relative to the repo root. **`--source fs`**: reads scenarios from the local filesystem at `--scenarios-path` (or an auto-detected default). *** ## Environment Variables | Variable | Required | Description | | - | - | - | | `DATABASE_URL` | always | PostgreSQL connection string | | `ORG_ID` | always | Your organization ID | | `TENANT_ID` | always | Your tenant ID | | `USER_ID` | always | The user ID under which scenarios run | | `ENGINE_API_URL` | `--gateway runner` | Base URL of the 2501 engine API | | `ENGINE_API_KEY` | `--gateway runner` | API key for engine authentication | | `SERVICENOW_API_URL` | `--gateway servicenow` | ServiceNow instance URL | | `SERVICENOW_USERNAME` | `--gateway servicenow` | ServiceNow username | | `SERVICENOW_PASSWORD` | `--gateway servicenow` | ServiceNow password | | `SERVICENOW_ASSIGNMENT_GROUP_ID` | `--gateway servicenow` | Assignment group for created incidents | | `SERVICENOW_CALLER_ID` | `--gateway servicenow` | Caller ID for created incidents | | `GIT_RUNNER_REPOSITORY` | `--source git` | Git URL of the scenarios repository | | `GIT_RUNNER_PAT` | `--source git` | Personal access token used to clone the repository | | `GIT_REF` | `--source git` | Branch to clone (defaults to `main`) | *** ## Common Patterns ```bash theme={null} # Run a single scenario 2501 runner start -s nginx/001-broken-config # Run all scenarios with a tag 2501 runner start -s nginx # Mix tags and explicit keys 2501 runner start -s nginx,disk/001-cleanup # 5 iterations 2501 runner start -s nginx/001-broken-config -i 5 # Submit through ServiceNow instead of the runner gateway 2501 runner start -s nginx/001-broken-config --gateway servicenow # Run scenarios from the local filesystem with a log file 2501 runner start -s regression-suite --source fs -i 3 --log-file ./runner.log # Parallel VM runs 2501 runner start -s nginx --mode lima --parallel --parallel-ram-cap 16 ``` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.