# modal serve | Modal Docs

- **URL:** https://modal.com/docs/cli/latest/serve
- **Summary:** Expose Web Functions with hot-reloading on code changes.

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`modal serve`
=============

Expose Web Functions with hot-reloading on code changes.

Examples:

    modal serve hello_world.py
    ```
    
    Modal-generated URLs will have a `-dev` suffix appended to them when running with `modal serve`.
    To customize this suffix (i.e., to avoid collisions with other users in your workspace who are
    concurrently serving the App), you can set the `dev_suffix` in your `.modal.toml` file or the
    `MODAL_DEV_SUFFIX` environment variable.
    
    **Usage**:
    
    ```shell
    modal serve [OPTIONS] APP_REF

**Options**:

*   `-n, --name TEXT`: Name for this run of the App.
*   `--timeout FLOAT`
*   `-e, --env TEXT`: Environment to interact with. If unspecified, defers to `MODAL_ENVIRONMENT`, your active local profile, or your workspace default, in that order.
*   `-m`: Interpret argument as a Python module path instead of a file/script path
*   `--timestamps`: Show timestamps for each log line.
*   `--help`: Show this message and exit.

[modal serve](https://modal.com/docs/cli/latest/serve#modal-serve)