Reproduce a Production Issue Locally

This is one of the main reasons to use ldev.

When production is failing, do not guess from screenshots or copy stack traces into chat. Recreate the state locally, inspect it, fix it there, and verify the result before production changes.

Problem

Production shows a page failure or content issue that you cannot reproduce with clean local data.

1. Pull the production database locally

ldev db sync --environment production --project my-lcp-project --force

--force replaces the current local PostgreSQL data so the environment matches the selected backup.

If you already have a local .sql, .gz, or .dump file, you can skip the cloud download and import it directly:

ldev db import --file /path/to/backup.sql.gz --force

2. Pull the production Document Library

ldev db files-download \
  --environment production \
  --project my-lcp-project \
  --doclib-dest docker/doclib/production

ldev db files-mount --path docker/doclib/production

Do this when the issue involves documents, images, or content linked from the Document Library.

If the file store is outside Liferay Cloud, move it manually and mount it yourself:

ldev db files-mount --path /path/to/manual/doclib

3. Start the local environment

ldev start
ldev doctor

You now have a local environment close enough to production state to debug without touching production users.

4. Discover the affected portal area

ldev portal inventory sites --json
ldev portal inventory pages --site /global --json
ldev portal inventory page --url /home --json

This is often faster than clicking through the UI, especially when the UI is already failing.

5. Diagnose the issue

ldev logs diagnose --since 15m --json
ldev osgi diag com.acme.foo.web

Use whichever command matches the failure signal you found.

6. Apply the fix locally

ldev deploy module foo-web

Or update the portal/resource/config state in the repo, then restart:

ldev env restart

7. Verify locally before any production action

ldev portal check
ldev portal inventory page --url /home --json
ldev logs diagnose --since 5m --json

This is the safety loop:

1. reproduce production locally
2. diagnose with local access
3. apply the fix safely
4. verify with the same commands