Forge App works only with "forge tunnel" running
Platform Notice: Cloud and Data Center - This article applies equally to both cloud and data center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
Forge App will work as long as forge tunnel is running but when the tunnel is stopped, the app does not run
Background
The "forge tunnel" command is used specifically during development of the forge app and development only. It re-directs requests to the forge app to your local machine. You can find more information about Tunneling in this document -
Cause
During development of a forge app and testing, the forge tunnel command will relay changes made to the app code without having the re-deploy each time. This helps in quick turnaround of Forge troubleshooting to see the changes you make to the app code. However, this is a tunnel to your local machine and local machine only. The actual app code changes are not being deployed to your Forge App. Once you have finished writing your app code, you must deploy your forge app. Otherwise, the code will only work on your local machine during tunneling.
In other words, you need to run deploy each time you make change to the app code so that the new logic or function is updated on the Forge app you have installed.
Note
Do note that app code changes do not include manifest file changes. If you make changes to the manifest such as changing the scope of the app, you need to run "forge install --upgrade" before deploying the application.
Solution
The solution to the problem is to run "forge deploy" command so that the changes are relayed to your Forge Application. You can diagnose, troubleshoot and test your app locally to ensure everything is working as intended using a Forge Tunnel. However, once you are ready to push or deploy the changes, you must run "forge deploy" so that the code changes are applicable to every user using the app and not just your local machine. Once you deploy, you do not need to keep running the tunnel as well.
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