@pronghorn/cli

Pronghorn CLI

The official command-line tool for Pronghorn, built entirely on cli-atelier. Scaffold new projects, generate routes/middlewares/plugins, and run dev/build workflows, all from one global command.

Installed globally via bun i -g @pronghorn/cli, this is the Pronghorn equivalent of fastify-cli.

Why the CLI

Pronghorn's createApp() is fully manual by design, but starting a brand new project by hand (directory structure, autoload conventions, boilerplate index.ts) is repetitive. The CLI automates that setup while staying out of the way of Pronghorn's programmatic, non-magic philosophy.

• pronghorn new scaffolds a complete project interactively, with optional EJS, Prisma, JWT, and OpenAPI wiring.
• pronghorn generate creates correctly-named route/middleware/plugin files matching Pronghorn's autoload conventions exactly.
• pronghorn dev runs your app under bun --watch with zero configuration.
• pronghorn build bundles and type-checks your project the same way every @pronghorn/* package builds itself.
• Every interactive step (forms, task lists, spinners) is rendered through cli-atelier, a zero-dependency, pure-ANSI terminal framework built for Bun.

Installation

bun i -g @pronghorn/cli

Requires Bun >=1.3.0. Installing under Node.js fails intentionally during preinstall, consistent with Pronghorn core's own Bun-only philosophy.

Verify the install:

pronghorn version

Commands

pronghorn new [name]

Scaffolds a new Pronghorn project into a directory named name (or prompts for one if omitted). Walks through an interactive form for the project name, optional features, and git initialization, then writes files, installs dependencies, and initializes git in sequence.

pronghorn new my-api

Generated structure:

my-api/
├── package.json
├── .gitignore
├── .env.example
├── README.md
└── src/
    ├── index.ts
    ├── routes/
    │   └── health.get.ts
    ├── middlewares/
    ├── plugins/
    └── hooks/

Selecting "EJS templating" also creates views/layout.ejs and views/home.ejs. Selecting "JWT auth" wires createJwtAuth into the generated index.ts automatically. Selecting "OpenAPI docs" adds @pronghorn/openapi as a dependency and registers it in index.ts.

pronghorn generate <kind> [name] [--method get]

Generates a single file matching Pronghorn's autoload naming conventions. kind is one of route, middleware, or plugin; if omitted, you're prompted to choose interactively.

pronghorn generate route users --method post
# -> src/routes/users.post.ts

pronghorn generate middleware admin-only
# -> src/middlewares/admin-only.middleware.ts

pronghorn generate plugin redis
# -> src/plugins/redis.plugin.ts

Both kind and name can be omitted entirely, the CLI falls back to interactive prompts for both.

pronghorn generate
# -> Select prompt: Route / Middleware / Plugin
# -> Text prompt: name

pronghorn dev

Runs src/index.ts under bun --watch from the current directory, restarting automatically on file changes. Must be run from a Pronghorn project root (a directory containing src/index.ts).

pronghorn dev

pronghorn build

Bundles src/index.ts with bun build --target bun into ./dist, then emits type declarations via tsc if a tsconfig.json is present. Mirrors the exact build process used by every @pronghorn/* package.

pronghorn build

pronghorn version

Prints the installed CLI version.

pronghorn version

Command Reference

Command	Arguments	Flags	Description
new	[name]	-	Scaffold a new project interactively
generate	[kind] [name]	--method (route only)	Generate a route, middleware, or plugin file
dev	-	-	Run the dev server with hot reload
build	-	-	Build the project for production
version	-	-	Print the CLI version

Architecture

The CLI is split into commands and templates, each with a single responsibility.

Module	Responsibility
commands/new.command.ts	Interactive project scaffolding: Form for options, Task for the write/install/git-init pipeline
commands/generate.command.ts	Single-file generation with Select/Prompt fallbacks when arguments are omitted
commands/dev.command.ts	Spawns bun --watch as a child process with inherited stdio
commands/build.command.ts	Spawns bun build and tsc sequentially via Task, mirroring every package's own build script
templates/*.template.ts	Pure string-generating functions producing each scaffolded file's content, no I/O

Every interactive surface (Form, Task, Select, Prompt, Spinner, Header, Log) is provided by cli-atelier, the CLI itself contains no custom terminal-rendering logic.

License

WTFPL (Do What the Fuck You Want to Public License), see LICENSE for details.