cratestack-cli

Command-line tool for .cstack schema validation and client/Studio code generation.

Installation

Prebuilt binaries (macOS x64/arm64, Linux x64/arm64, Windows x64) are attached to every GitHub Release — no Rust toolchain required.

Via cargo-binstall:

cargo binstall cratestack-cli

Via npm (downloads the matching platform binary from GitHub Releases on install):

npm install --global @cratestack/cli
# or run without installing:
npx @cratestack/cli --help

From source, with a Rust toolchain:

cargo install cratestack-cli

Or from the workspace:

cargo run -p cratestack-cli -- --help

Commands

check — validate a schema

cratestack check --schema path/to/schema.cstack
cratestack check --schema path/to/schema.cstack --format json

Flags:

• --schema <PATH> — path to the .cstack file (required)
• --format <human|json> — output format (default human)

On success the human formatter writes schema OK: <path>; the JSON formatter prints a { ok: true, ... } document. On error the human formatter renders a diagnostic and exits non-zero; the JSON formatter prints { ok: false, diagnostics: [...] } and exits 1.

generate-dart — Dart package

cratestack generate-dart \
  --schema schemas/catalog.cstack \
  --out packages/catalog_client \
  --library-name catalog_client \
  --base-path /api

Flags:

• --schema <PATH> (required)
• --out <PATH> (required)
• --library-name <NAME> (default cratestack_client)
• --base-path <PATH> (default /api)
• --template-dir <PATH> (optional)
• --check (drift-detection mode — see below)
• --preset <default|riverpod> (default default) — default is today's monolithic lib/src/models.dart/lib/src/apis.dart layout. riverpod emits one file per model under lib/src/models/, a shared file for cross-model types, procedures in their own file, and package-wide DI providers in lib/src/client.dart.
• --run-build-runner — after generation, shell out to dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs in --out so a --preset riverpod package's @riverpod annotations are actually expanded (the generated Dart doesn't compile/analyze until build_runner runs). Off by default. No effect together with --check. Requires a Dart SDK on PATH.

generate-typescript (alias generate-ts)

cratestack generate-typescript \
  --schema schemas/catalog.cstack \
  --out packages/catalog-client \
  --package-name @example/catalog-client \
  --base-path /api

Flags:

• --schema <PATH> (required)
• --out <PATH> (required)
• --package-name <NAME> (default cratestack-client)
• --base-path <PATH> (default /api)
• --template-dir <PATH> (optional)
• --check (drift-detection mode — see below)
• --full-selection (emit fully-required model interfaces, driven by the schema's own nullability, instead of the projection-driven optional-everywhere default — for consumers that never do partial fields/include selection)
• --preset <default|swr> (default default) — default is today's monolithic layout (src/models.ts, src/client.ts, ...). swr emits one src/models/<model>.ts per model (types + plain framework-free async functions) plus src/procedures.ts, the structural foundation for SWR hooks. swr does not support transport grpc schemas yet.

--check — drift detection (CI guard)

Both generate-dart and generate-typescript accept --check: instead of writing to --out, the command generates in memory and diffs the result file-by-file against what's already on disk. It exits 0 if they match, and non-zero with a list of drifted files (modified, missing, or unexpected) otherwise. No files under --out are written or modified in --check mode.

cratestack generate-typescript \
  --schema schemas/catalog.cstack \
  --out packages/catalog-client \
  --package-name @example/catalog-client \
  --base-path /api \
  --check

Use this in CI to catch a schema change that nobody regenerated the client for, or a hand-edit to committed generated code.

generate-proto — .proto file + field-number lockfile

cratestack generate-proto \
  --schema schemas/catalog.cstack \
  --out schemas/catalog.proto \
  --package catalog.v1

Emits a .proto file describing the schema's messages/enums (no service block — that needs a transport grpc schema) plus its sibling field-number lockfile (<schema>.pb.lock) so wire numbers don't silently renumber across schema edits.

Flags:

• --schema <PATH> (required)
• --out <PATH> (required)
• --package <NAME> — protobuf package name. Required on first run (no existing .pb.lock); on later runs, must match what's already locked or be omitted.
• --check (drift-detection mode: rebuild the lock and .proto text in memory and compare against what's on disk instead of writing)

studio — admin and testing surface

Replaces the old generate-studio codegen scaffold. The studio reads a workspace file (studio.toml) listing one or more .cstack schemas plus their DB and/or API targets, then serves a single binary.

cratestack studio init                        # writes ./studio.toml
cratestack studio run                         # binds 127.0.0.1:7878 by default
cratestack studio run --config infra/studio.toml --bind 0.0.0.0:9000
cratestack studio eject --out ./out           # self-contained starter binary crate
cratestack studio eject --out ./out --with-ui # + Leptos/Trunk UI sources under ./out/ui/

Subcommand flags:

• init: --out <DIR> (default .), --force to overwrite an existing studio.toml
• run: --config <PATH> (default studio.toml), --bind <ADDR> (default 127.0.0.1:7878)
• eject: --out <DIR> (required), --name <NAME> (project name written into the generated Cargo.toml/README.md; defaults to --out's directory basename), --force (overwrite files in a non-empty --out), --with-ui (also unpack the Leptos+Trunk UI sources into <out>/ui/ for front-end customization)

eject produces a self-contained Cargo binary crate (Cargo.toml, README.md, studio.toml, schemas/example.cstack, src/main.rs) that embeds the studio against your own schemas.

migrate diff — generate a migration

cratestack migrate diff \
  --schema schema.cstack \
  --out-dir migrations \
  --backend both \
  --name add_customer_email \
  [--allow-destructive]

Diffs the current .cstack against the committed snapshot of the previously-generated schema and writes SQL migrations under <out-dir>/<backend>/<timestamp>_<name>/.

Flags:

• --schema <PATH> (required)
• --out-dir <DIR> (default migrations)
• --backend <postgres|sqlite|both> (default both)
• --name <SLUG> (default migration)
• --allow-destructive — required to emit a migration containing lossy ops (DropColumn, DropTable, narrowing type changes); without it the command refuses to write a destructive migration

See cratestack-migrate's README for the full IR/emitter design.

migrate baseline — adopt an existing database

cratestack migrate baseline \
  --schema schema.cstack \
  --database-url postgres://user:pass@host:5432/db \
  --out-dir migrations \
  [--backend postgres] \
  [--strict]

Points migrate diff at a database that already has tables — hand-created, from a prior tool, or from a previous internal migration system — instead of the empty schema migrate diff otherwise assumes when no snapshot exists yet. Introspects --database-url, diffs the live shape against --schema for a drift report (grouped by table, each change tagged safe/lossy/blocking), writes the snapshot from the introspected shape (not from --schema — see below), and records a synthetic row in cratestack_migrations so the runtime applier (cratestack-sqlx) and the authoring side agree about what's already there.

Drift is reported, not resolved, and does not fail the command by default — matching the adoption use case, where the live database rarely matches the schema byte-for-byte on day one. Pass --strict to flip that: exit non-zero on any drift, with no snapshot written and no row recorded, for teams that want baselining to double as a "prove the schema already matches" CI gate instead of an adoption tool.

Because the snapshot is written from what was actually introspected, a database with drift bakes that drift into the snapshot as "already true" — a later migrate diff will then propose the DDL to reconcile it, rather than silently treating undeclared drift as permanent. Refuses to run (non-zero exit, no writes, no DB round-trip) if a snapshot already exists at <out-dir>/postgres/schema.snapshot.json — baselining an already-managed backend is almost certainly a mistake.

Flags:

• --schema <PATH> (required)
• --database-url <URL> (required) — the live Postgres database to introspect and to record the baseline row into
• --out-dir <DIR> (default migrations)
• --backend <postgres> (default, and currently the only accepted value — baseline is Postgres-only for now)
• --strict — fail instead of reporting drift

Postgres-only for v1; no --backend sqlite/both. See docs/design/migrate-baseline.md for the full design.

diff — schema-change detector

cratestack diff old.cstack new.cstack
cratestack diff old.cstack new.cstack --json

Diffs two .cstack schemas and classifies each change by its effect on the generated wire contract (breaking / additive / internal-only). Exits non-zero if any breaking change is found, so it can gate CI on schema PRs.

Flags:

• old — path to the baseline schema (positional, required)
• new — path to the candidate schema (positional, required)
• --json — emit machine-readable JSON instead of the human report

print-ir — dump parsed schema IR

cratestack print-ir --schema schemas/catalog.cstack

Build Integration

fn main() {
    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=schema.cstack");

    let output = std::process::Command::new("cratestack")
        .args(["check", "--schema", "schema.cstack", "--format", "json"])
        .output()
        .expect("failed to run cratestack");

    if !output.status.success() {
        panic!("schema validation failed");
    }
}

See Also

• Quickstart
• cratestack-client-dart — Dart package structure
• cratestack-client-typescript — TypeScript package structure
• cratestack-studio — Studio server + eject scaffold implementation (cratestack-studio-generator is a thin re-export)
• cratestack-migrate — schema diff / migration generator behind migrate diff
• cratestack-proto — .proto generator behind generate-proto

License

MIT