Implementation:Apache Airflow StandaloneCommand Entrypoint

Knowledge Sources	Apache Airflow Airflow Quick Start
Domains	DevOps, CLI
Last Updated	2026-02-08 00:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for bootstrapping a complete Airflow instance provided by the Airflow CLI.

Description

The StandaloneCommand class runs all components of Airflow (scheduler, dag-processor, API server, triggerer) under a single parent process. It is designed for development and testing environments. The companion migratedb function handles database schema migrations via Alembic.

Usage

Use this when setting up a local Airflow development environment or running a single-node deployment. For production, use individual component startup commands instead.

Code Reference

Source Location

Repository: Apache Airflow
File: airflow-core/src/airflow/cli/commands/standalone_command.py
Lines: L48-312

Signature

class StandaloneCommand:
    """Runs all components of Airflow under a single parent process."""

    @classmethod
    def entrypoint(cls, args) -> None:
        """Entry point for the standalone command."""
        ...

    def __init__(self) -> None:
        ...

    @providers_configuration_loaded
    def run(self) -> None:
        """Run scheduler, dag-processor, api-server, triggerer as subprocesses."""
        ...

Database Migration:

def migratedb(args) -> None:
    """Execute Alembic schema upgrade."""
    # Parameters:
    #   args.to_version: str — target version
    #   args.to_revision: str — target revision
    #   args.from_version: str — source version
    #   args.show_sql_only: bool — print SQL without executing

Import

from airflow.cli.commands.standalone_command import StandaloneCommand
from airflow.cli.commands.db_command import migratedb

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
args	Namespace	Yes	CLI argument namespace (from argparse)
airflow.cfg	Config file	No	Airflow configuration (or env vars)
metadata database	Database	Yes	Empty or existing metadata database

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
Running services	Processes	Scheduler + API server + triggerer + dag-processor subprocesses
Migrated database	Database	Metadata database with current schema
Admin credentials	stdout	Default admin user credentials (standalone mode only)

Usage Examples

Standalone Quick Start

# Start all Airflow components in standalone mode
airflow standalone

# Or migrate database separately
airflow db migrate
airflow db migrate --to-version 3.0.0
airflow db migrate --show-sql-only

Related Pages

Implements Principle

Principle:Apache_Airflow_Environment_Setup

Requires Environment

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Principle

Implementation

Heuristic

Environment