Unit 1 — CLI Setup Track (Path A)

You've chosen the standalone CLI path. Two-process model: your service runs in one process, the bowire workbench in a second. The tracks merge again at Unit 2 once setup is done — recording, mocking, AI integration, plugin work, CI all use the same workbench UI regardless of which setup track you walked.

When this path fits

• You already have a service running and want to poke at it from outside without changing its code.
• Your services are genuinely separate processes (microservices in separate repos / containers), and a single workbench needs to span the boundary.
• You're exploring an unfamiliar API and don't want to add a dependency to the host.
• You're building CI integration around bowire test / bowire mock — both are CLI commands, no embedded equivalent.

If your service is .NET and you'd rather mount the workbench inside the host process (no second terminal, no port juggling), look at Unit 1 — Embedded Setup Track instead.

Lessons in this track

#	Lesson	Duration
1.1	First call — REST	10 min
1.2	Multi-protocol — REST + gRPC	10 min

After Lesson 1.2 → continue to Unit 2: Record, Replay, Mock.

Mental model

┌─────────────────────────┐      ┌───────────────────────────┐
│  Your service           │      │  bowire CLI               │
│  (HelloApi on :5001)    │ ◀──▶ │  http://localhost:5080/   │
└─────────────────────────┘      │     bowire (workbench UI) │
                                 └───────────────────────────┘
   terminal 1                       terminal 2

One terminal for the service, one for the workbench. The workbench discovers the service through the URL you pass via --url and renders each method in the sidebar.