Server

To start ArcadeDB as a server run the script server.sh under the bin directory of ArcadeDB distribution. If you’re using MS Windows OS, replace server.sh with server.bat.

$ bin/server.sh

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PLAY WITH DATA                                    arcadedb.com

2025-12-09 22:22:22.839 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> ArcadeDB Server v26.5.1 is starting up...
2025-12-09 22:22:22.841 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Running on Mac OS X 15.6 - OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 25.0.1 (Homebrew)
2025-12-09 22:22:22.843 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Starting ArcadeDB Server in development mode with plugins [] ...
2025-12-09 22:22:22.878 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> - Metrics Collection Started...
2025-12-09 22:22:22.891 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Server root path: .
2025-12-09 22:22:22.891 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Databases directory: ./databases
2025-12-09 22:22:22.891 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Backups directory: ./backups

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                WARNING: FIRST RUN CONFIGURATION                    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| This is the first time the server is running. Please type a        |
| password of your choice for the 'root' user or leave it blank      |
| to auto-generate it.                                               |
|                                                                    |
| To avoid this message set the environment variable or JVM          |
| setting `arcadedb.server.rootPassword` to the root password to use.|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Root password [BLANK=auto generate it]: *

The first time the server is running, the root password must be inserted and confirmed. The hash (+salt) of the inserted password will be stored in the file config/server-users.json. The password length must be between 8 and 256 characters. To know more about this topic, look at Security. Delete this file and restart the server to reinsert the password for server’s root user.

The default rules of security are pretty basic. You can implement your own security policy. Check the Security Policy.

You can skip the request for the password by passing it as a setting. Example:

-Darcadedb.server.rootPassword=this_is_a_password

Alternatively the password can be passed file-based. Example:

-Darcadedb.server.rootPasswordPath=/run/secrets/root

which is particularly useful for container-based deployments.

The password file is a plain-text file and should not contain any line breaks / new lines.

Once inserted the password for the root user, you should see this output.

Root password [BLANK=auto generate it]: *********
*Please type the root password for confirmation (copy and paste will not work): *********

2025-12-09 22:23:33.719 INFO  [HttpServer] <ArcadeDB_0> - Starting HTTP Server (host=0.0.0.0 port=[2480, 2489] httpsPort=[2490, 2499])...
2025-12-09 22:23:33.738 INFO  [undertow] starting server: Undertow - 2.3.20.Final
2025-12-09 22:23:33.741 INFO  [xnio] XNIO version 3.8.16.Final
2025-12-09 22:23:33.744 INFO  [nio] XNIO NIO Implementation Version 3.8.16.Final
2025-12-09 22:23:33.803 INFO  [HttpServer] <ArcadeDB_0> - HTTP Server started (host=0.0.0.0 port=2480 httpsPort=2490)
2025-12-09 22:23:33.908 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Available query languages: [sqlscript, mongo, gremlin, java, cypher, js, graphql, sql]
2025-12-09 22:23:33.909 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> ArcadeDB Server started in 'development' mode (CPUs=8 MAXRAM=4,00GB)
2025-12-09 22:23:33.910 INFO  [ArcadeDBServer] <ArcadeDB_0> Studio web tool available at http://192.168.1.102:2480

A warning WARNING: Using incubator modules: jdk.incubator.vector in the log can be safely ignored.

By default, the following components start with the server:

JMX Metrics, to monitor server performance and statistics (served via port 9999).
HTTP Server, that listens on port 2480 by default. If port 2480 is already occupied, then the next is taken up to 2489.

In the output above, the name ArcadeDB_0 is the server name. By default, ArcadeDB_0 is used. To specify a different name define it with the setting server.name, example:

$ bin/server.sh -Darcadedb.server.name=ArcadeDB_Europe_0

In a high availability (HA) configuration, it’s mandatory that all the servers in an cluster have different names.

Start server hint

To start the server from a location different than the ArcadeDB folder, for example, if starting the server as a service, set the environment variable ARCADEDB_HOME to the ArcadeDB folder:

$ export ARCADEDB_HOME=/path/to/arcadedb

Server modes

The server can be started in one of three modes, which affect the studio, logging, and security defaults:

Mode Studio Logging WAL Flush LOAD CSV file access

Mode	Studio	Logging	WAL Flush	LOAD CSV file access
`development`	Yes	Detailed	No flush (`0`)	Enabled
`test`	Yes	Brief	No flush (`0`)	Enabled
`production`	No	Brief	Auto-set to `1` if not configured	Auto-disabled if not configured

development

Yes

Detailed

No flush (0)

Enabled

test

Yes

Brief

No flush (0)

Enabled

production

Brief

Auto-set to 1 if not configured

Auto-disabled if not configured

The mode is controlled by the server.mode setting with a default mode development.

Production mode defaults

When the server starts in production mode, ArcadeDB automatically applies safe defaults for settings that have not been explicitly configured:

WAL flush (arcadedb.txWalFlush): set to 1 (flush without metadata) for transaction durability. If you explicitly set it to 0, a warning is logged. See concepts/transactions.adoc#wal-flush-durability for details.
LOAD CSV file access (arcadedb.opencypher.loadCsv.allowFileUrls): disabled to prevent Cypher queries from reading local files on the server. Set to true explicitly if needed.

These defaults are only applied when the setting has not been explicitly configured by the user (via system property, environment variable, or API call). Explicit settings are always respected.

At startup, a production checklist is logged summarizing the security-relevant configuration:

INFO  Production checklist:
INFO  - WAL flush: 1 (flush without metadata) [OK]
INFO  - SSL: disabled. Consider enabling for encrypted connections
INFO  - High availability: disabled. Consider enabling for fault tolerance
INFO  - LOAD CSV file access: disabled [OK]
INFO  - Backup support: enabled [OK]

Create default database(s)

Instead of starting a server and then connect to it, to create the default databases, ArcadeDB Server takes an initial default databases list by using the setting server.defaultDatabases.

$ bin/server.sh "-Darcadedb.server.defaultDatabases=Universe[albert:einstein]"

With the example above the database "Universe" will be created if doesn’t exist, with user "albert", password "einstein".

Due to the use of [], the command line argument needs to be wrapped in quotes.

A default database without users still needs to include empty brackets, ie: -Darcadedb.server.defaultDatabases=Multiverse[]

Once the server is started, multiple clients can be connected to the server by using one of the supported protocols:

Logging

The log files are created in the folder ./log with the filenames arcadedb.log.X, where X is a number between 0 to 9, set up for log rotate. The current log file has the number 0, and is rotated based on server starts or file size.

By default ArcadeDB does not log debug messages into the console and file. You can change this settings by editing the file config/arcadedb-log.properties. The file is a standard logging configuration file.

The default configuration is the following.

1  handlers = java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler, java.util.logging.FileHandler
2  .level = INFO
3  com.arcadedb.level = INFO
4  java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = INFO
5  java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter = com.arcadedb.utility.AnsiLogFormatter
6  java.util.logging.FileHandler.level = INFO
7  java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern=./log/arcadedb.log
8  java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = com.arcadedb.log.LogFormatter
9  java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit=100000000
10 java.util.logging.FileHandler.count=10

Where:

Line 1 contains 2 loggers, the console and the file. This means logs will be written in both console (process output) and configured file (see line 7)
Line 2 sets INFO (information) as the default logging level for all the Java classes between FINER, FINE, INFO, WARNING, SEVERE
Line 3 is as (line 2) but sets the level for ArcadeDB package only SEVERE
Line 4 sets the minimum level the console logger filters the log file (below INFO level will be discarded)
Line 5 sets the formatter used for the console. The AnsiLogFormatter supports ANSI color codes
Line 6 sets the minimum level the file logger filters the log file (below INFO level will be discarded)
Line 7 sets the path where to write the log file (the file will have a counter suffix, see line 10)
Line 8 sets the formatter used for the file
Line 9 sets the maximum file size for the log, before creating a new file. By default it is 100MB
Line 10 sets the number of files to keep in the directory. By default it is 10. This means that after the 10th file, the oldest file will be removed

If you’re running ArcadeDB in embedded mode, make sure you’re using the logging setting by specifying the arcadedb-log.properties file at JVM startup:

$ java ... -Djava.util.logging.config.file=$ARCADEDB_HOME/config/arcadedb-log.properties ...

You can also use your own configuration for logging. In this case replace the path above with your own file.

Server Plugins (Extend The Server)

You can extend ArcadeDB server by creating custom plugins. A plugin is a Java class that implements the interface com.arcadedb.server.ServerPlugin:

public interface ServerPlugin {
  void startService();

  default void stopService() {
  }

  default void configure(ArcadeDBServer arcadeDBServer, ContextConfiguration configuration) {
  }

  default void registerAPI(final HttpServer httpServer, final PathHandler routes) {
  }
}

Once registered, the plugin (see below), ArcadeDB Server will instantiate your plugin class and will call the method configure() passing the server configuration. At startup of the server, the startService() method will be invoked. When the server is shut down, the stopService() will be invoked where you can free any resources used by the plugin. The method registerAPI(), if implemented, will be invoked when the HTTP server is initializing where one’s own HTTP commands can be registered. For more information about how to create custom HTTP commands, look at Custom HTTP commands.

Example:

package com.yourpackage;

public class MyPlugin implements ServerPlugin {
  @Override
  public void startService() {
    System.out.println( "Plugin started" );
  }

  @Override
  public void stopService() {
    System.out.println( "Plugin halted" );
  }

  @Override
  default void configure(ArcadeDBServer arcadeDBServer, ContextConfiguration configuration) {
    System.out.println( "Plugin configured" );
  }

  @Override
  default void registerAPI(final HttpServer httpServer, final PathHandler routes) {
    System.out.println( "Registering HTTP commands" );
  }
}

To register your plugin, register the name and add your class (with full package name) in arcadedb.server.plugins setting:

Example:

$ java ... -Darcadedb.server.plugins=MyPlugin:com.yourpackage.MyPlugin ...

In case of multiple plugins, use a comma (,) to separate them.

Metrics

The ArcadeDB server can collect, log and publish metrics. To activate the collection of metrics use the setting:

$ ... -Darcadedb.serverMetrics=true

To log the metrics to the standard output use the setting:

$ ... -Darcadedb.serverMetrics.logging=true

To publish the metrics as Prometheus via HTTP, add the plugin:

$ ... -Darcadedb.server.plugins="Prometheus:com.arcadedb.metrics.prometheus.PrometheusMetricsPlugin"

Then, under http://localhost:2480/prometheus (or the respective ArcadeDB host) the metrics can be requested given server credentials. For details about the response format see the Prometheus docs.