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ArchivesSpace does not define its own lifecycle commands. Like every application plugin, an ArchivesSpace stack is built, started, stopped, inspected, and rolled out with the core sitectl commands, which operate on whichever context is active:
The downstream Dockerfile builds from libops/archivesspace:4.2.0. The companion Solr image uses the same ArchivesSpace release tag (libops/archivesspace-solr:4.2.0) so application and search configuration stay aligned. With the template default ASPACE_DB_MIGRATE=true, container startup runs ArchivesSpace’s scripts/setup-database.sh before launching the application. sitectl deploy pulls dependencies, rebuilds the downstream application layer, and requires a bounded 10-minute service health wait after restart, so a startup migration that prevents ArchivesSpace from becoming healthy fails the deploy. Before changing either release tag, back up MariaDB and the user-owned archivesspace-data volume, and verify a restore. Update the application and companion Solr tags together; a mixed release can start while still carrying incompatible search configuration. Do not disable ASPACE_DB_MIGRATE during a version change unless the release’s documented migration procedure explicitly replaces the automatic setup step. The ArchivesSpace plugin does not register the generic dev-mode component because broad plugin, locale, or stylesheet mounts can hide content bundled in the base image. Add customizations through the tracked downstream build context or narrowly target one customization path in a local override. ArchivesSpace is not a PHP/nginx application runtime. Its ingress component retains generic Traefik router, hostname, scheme, trusted-forwarder, and entrypoint timeout changes, but opts the application service out of shared PHP_* and NGINX_* environment values and removes stale PUBLIC_URL. An upload or timeout setting is end to end only when the ArchivesSpace backend itself has a separately documented matching control. sitectl archivesspace ... is reserved for ArchivesSpace-specific operations, including the API helpers, resource shortcuts, and container scripts. General lifecycle stays in the core CLI so the same operational contract applies to every stack. See sitectl create, sitectl compose, and sitectl deploy for the full lifecycle reference.