> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.nanny.run/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# nanny health

> Check the health of all active Nanny components in one command.

Shows the status of every Nanny component that is currently active. Exits `0` if all active components are healthy, `1` if any are unhealthy.

```bash theme={null}
nanny health
```

***

## What it checks

`nanny health` checks three things:

| Component      | Active when                                         | What "healthy" means                            |
| -------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| Local bridge   | `NANNY_BRIDGE_SOCKET` or `NANNY_BRIDGE_PORT` is set | A TCP connection to the bridge succeeds         |
| Network server | `NANNY_BRIDGE_ADDR` is set                          | A TCP connection to the server address succeeds |
| Certificates   | `~/.nanny/certs/` exists                            | Cert files are present and not expired          |

A component that was never started is **not checked** and does not cause a non-zero exit. `nanny health` only reports on what is active.

This means `nanny health` run from a regular terminal (outside `nanny run`) will typically show `local bridge: not running` — that's expected. The bridge env vars are injected by `nanny run` into the child process, not into the terminal that launched it.

***

## Example output

**Server running, certs valid:**

```
local bridge  : not running
network server: running  (0.0.0.0:62669)  [plain HTTP]
certs         : valid  (expires 2027-05-01T09:00:00Z)
```

**All components active and healthy (within a governed process):**

```
local bridge  : running
network server: not running
certs         : not found  (run `nanny certs generate`)
```

**Server unreachable:**

```
local bridge  : not running
network server: unreachable  (server.example.com:62669) — connection refused
certs         : valid  (expires 2027-05-01T09:00:00Z)
```

Exit code is `1` when any active component is unreachable.

***

## Certificate expiry warning

When certs exist and are valid but expire within 30 days, `nanny health` prints a warning to stderr:

```
nanny health  : warning — certs expire in 14 day(s). Run `nanny certs rotate` to renew.
```

The exit code is still `0` — a near-expiry cert is healthy, just worth knowing about.

***

## Use in scripts and health checks

`nanny health` is designed for scripts, Docker health checks, and Kubernetes liveness probes:

**Docker:**

```dockerfile theme={null}
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s \
  CMD nanny health || exit 1
```

**Shell script:**

```bash theme={null}
if ! nanny health; then
  echo "Nanny is not healthy — aborting"
  exit 1
fi
```

**Kubernetes:**

```yaml theme={null}
livenessProbe:
  exec:
    command: ["nanny", "health"]
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 30
```

***

## See also

* [`nanny server status`](/v0.4/reference/cli-server) — focused status view for the governance server
* [`nanny certs show`](/v0.4/reference/cli-certs) — cert expiry and file inventory