--- title: Local execution and state description: Connect the automation lifecycle to CLI processes and the stores they keep on disk. --- The CLI hosts Marbles on your machine. Its process can execute one run and exit, or stay alive to launch runs, poll monitors, and answer questions. A process and a run have different lifetimes. Starting the CLI loads your modules and runtime; launching an automation creates a run within that runtime. Keeping a dashboard open does not turn all its launches into one run. ## From a module to a result | Stage | What the CLI does | What your module does | | --- | --- | --- | | Discover | Finds and imports automation modules. | Declares named work, resources, and triggers. | | Bind | Prepares workspaces, providers, stores, and resource managers. | Supplies definitions that describe what it needs. | | Launch | Starts a run with validated input. | Builds a workflow tree, or supplies a single step. | | Execute | Runs the steps in dependency order. | Uses the execution context and returns results. | | Retain | Saves run outcomes and updates the relevant stores. | Writes reports or artifacts that future work needs. | This is the declaration-and-execution distinction from the earlier pages, now applied to a real process. Top-level module code executes during import, including for inspection commands. Step bodies execute when launched. ## Choose the process lifetime | Mode | Lifetime | | --- | --- | | `marbles roll ` | Dispatch one definition, schedule, or monitor and exit. Cannot answer a question. | | `marbles` | Keep the dashboard active for schedules, monitors, launches, and answers. | | `marbles run` with piped input or output | Keep schedules and monitors running with plain output. Cannot answer a question. | Keep Marbles running to execute triggers on their cadence. `roll` executes one target immediately; it does not keep a clock running. Both modes use the same workspace state. Restart an open dashboard to load edited modules. See the [CLI reference](/marbles/reference/cli) for commands and controls. ## Different stores remember different things | State | What it answers | | --- | --- | | Run snapshot | Which steps finished, what they returned, and whether this run is waiting. | | Agent session | Which messages belong to this conversation. | | Artifact content | Which files and evidence a particular output version contains. | | Trigger state | When a schedule finished or which observation a monitor last handled. | [Workflows](https://github.com/Francois-Esquire/foundry/blob/main/packages/workflows/README.md), [Agents](https://github.com/Francois-Esquire/foundry/blob/main/packages/agents/README.md), and [Artifacts](https://github.com/Francois-Esquire/foundry/blob/main/packages/artifacts/README.md) supply the underlying contracts. Marbles connects their records and provides local persistent stores by default. A transcript alone cannot tell the workflow which steps finished; a run snapshot alone does not contain every artifact's file bytes. Run and session state belongs to the canonical workspace path, under `~/.foundry/marbles//` by default. Artifact content lives separately under `~/.foundry/artifacts/`. Preserve both when moving or backing up an automation. The [state reference](/marbles/reference/state) documents the files and their ownership rules. ## What a restart keeps A new process reads the saved state. An answering dashboard can adopt a parked run when its definition remains available and its previous ownership has ended. A run interrupted while actively executing is not adopted. The [durability guide](/marbles/foundation/durability#recovery-after-a-restart) explains the recovery boundary and why a fresh launch can repeat earlier work. Under `--dry-run`, Marbles keeps its state in memory and substitutes managed operations. Ordinary TypeScript and monitor I/O still execute. See [safety and limits](/marbles/reference/safety) for the precise boundary. An [embedding host](/marbles/reference/engine) provides its own package instances and persistent stores. A [remote host](/marbles/reference/remote) uses the same process model with its own tools and credentials. Next: [Foundry primitives](/marbles/foundation/primitives) connects the concepts you have used to the libraries underneath Marbles.