devist

Project bootstrap CLI for AI-assisted development.

A Rust CLI that lets you scaffold new projects from templates, run multiple project backends without overloading your machine, and stay on top of what's in your codebase — even when most of the code was written by AI.

Built by Webchemist.

Status: v0.1.0 beta. APIs and template manifest schema may change before v1.0.

Why

Two pains modern dev workflows hit hard:

1. Backend stack overload. One Supabase or Postgres docker stack per project melts your laptop. devist runs at most one backend at a time — switching projects auto-stops the previous one.
2. AI-assisted code blindness. When AI writes most of the code, you stop knowing how the system fits together. devist gives you brief, scan, explain, and watch to keep your mental model intact.

Install

From source (any platform)

git clone https://github.com/WebchemistCorp/devist
cd devist
cargo install --path .

One-liner (macOS / Linux, prebuilt binary)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WebchemistCorp/devist/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Specific version

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WebchemistCorp/devist/main/scripts/install.sh | DEVIST_VERSION=v0.1.0 sh

Manual binary download

Grab the archive for your platform from the Releases page and extract devist somewhere on your PATH.

Homebrew tap (brew install WebchemistCorp/devist/devist) and crates.io publish are planned for v1.0.

Quick Start

devist setup
devist template add https://github.com/WebchemistCorp/devist-templates
devist init my-app --template=react-supabase
devist start my-app --dev

Command Reference

Project lifecycle

Templates

Code comprehension (Phase 4)

The brief and scan outputs are designed to be piped into AI tools:

devist brief my-app | claude "summarize what changed this week"
devist scan my-app --json > scan.json
devist explain my-app src/main.rs > main-walkthrough.md

Layout

~/.devist/
├── config.toml       Your settings
├── registry.toml     Projects you've created
├── state.toml        Currently active backend
├── templates/        Cloned template repos
└── cache/            Reserved

Templates

A template is a directory with a devist.toml manifest plus any project files. Files ending in .tmpl get variable substitution; everything else is copied as-is (binary-safe).

Minimal devist.toml:

[meta]
name = "my-stack"
version = "0.1.0"
description = "Short description"
author = "You"
tags = ["fullstack"]

[variables]
project_name = { default = "{{folder_name}}" }
description = { default = "A new project" }

[stack]
type = "supabase"   # or "docker-compose", "none"

[commands]
install = "pnpm install"
dev = "pnpm dev"
backend_start = "supabase start"
backend_stop = "supabase stop"
test = "pnpm test"

Variables are substituted in *.tmpl files with {{ name }} syntax. Auto-provided: project_name, folder_name. Override with --var key=value.

A single git repo can host multiple templates as subdirectories. The official WebchemistCorp/devist-templates repo is structured this way.

Development

cargo build
cargo test
cargo run -- --help

Required: Rust 1.70+, git. For most templates: docker, node, pnpm, supabase CLI.

Status

Active development. Phases:

Currently at end of Phase 4.

License

MIT