@arikajs/cli

The Official Command-Line Interface for ArikaJS

📦 Installation & Usage

Option 1: Use with npx (Recommended)

The fastest way to use the ArikaJS CLI without installing it globally:

npx @arikajs/cli new my-app

Option 2: Global Installation

Install the CLI globally to use the arika command anywhere:

npm install -g @arikajs/cli

# Then use directly:
arika new my-app

🚀 Quick Start

Create a new ArikaJS application:

# Create a new project
arika new my-awesome-app

# Navigate to your project
cd my-awesome-app

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start the development server
npm run dev

Your application will be running at http://localhost:8000 🎉

📋 Available Commands

arika new <name>

Create a new ArikaJS application.

arika new my-app

Options:

• <name> - The name of your application

Interactive Prompts:

• Install dependencies automatically? (Y/n)

What it does:

• Creates a new directory with your app name
• Scaffolds the complete application structure
• Sets up configuration files
• Generates a secure application key
• Optionally installs npm dependencies

arika serve

Start the development server.

# Start in development mode with hot-reload
arika serve --dev

# Start in production mode
arika serve

Options:

• --dev - Run with TypeScript hot-reload using tsx
• --port <port> - Specify the port (default: from .env or 8000)

arika key:generate

Generate a new application encryption key.

arika key:generate

What it does:

• Generates a secure random 32-character key
• Updates your .env file with APP_KEY
• Required for encryption, sessions, and security features

arika migrate

Run database migrations.

# Run all pending migrations
arika migrate

# Rollback the last batch of migrations
arika migrate:rollback

# Rollback all migrations
arika migrate:reset

# Rollback and re-run all migrations
arika migrate:refresh

arika make:migration <name>

Create a new database migration.

arika make:migration create_users_table

What it does:

• Creates a new migration file in database/migrations/
• Includes timestamp prefix for ordering
• Provides template with up() and down() methods

Example output:

database/migrations/0001_create_users_table.ts

arika queue:table

Create the database table for queue jobs.

arika queue:table

What it does:

• Creates a migration for the jobs table
• Sets up the schema for background job processing

📁 Project Structure

When you create a new project with arika new, you get this structure:

my-app/
├── app/
│   ├── Controllers/          # HTTP controllers
│   ├── Models/              # Database models
│   ├── Middleware/          # Custom middleware
│   └── Http/
│       └── Kernel.ts        # HTTP kernel configuration
├── bootstrap/
│   └── app.ts              # Application bootstrap
├── config/                  # Configuration files
│   ├── app.ts
│   ├── database.ts
│   └── logging.ts
├── database/
│   └── migrations/         # Database migrations
├── routes/
│   └── web.ts             # Route definitions
├── .env                    # Environment variables
├── .env.example           # Environment template
├── server.ts              # Application entry point
├── tsconfig.json          # TypeScript configuration
└── package.json           # npm dependencies

🔧 Configuration

The CLI respects your project's configuration:

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in your project root:

APP_NAME=MyApp
APP_ENV=development
APP_KEY=your-32-character-secret-key
APP_PORT=8000

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=myapp
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=secret

TypeScript Configuration

The generated tsconfig.json is optimized for ArikaJS:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "rootDir": "./",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true
  }
}

🎯 Usage Examples

Creating a New Project

# Create a new project
$ arika new blog-api

🚀 Creating a new ArikaJS application: /path/to/blog-api

? Would you like to install dependencies automatically? Yes

Scaffolding project in /path/to/blog-api...
Installing dependencies...

✨ Project created successfully!

Next steps:
  cd blog-api
  npm run dev

Happy coding with ArikaJS!

Starting Development Server

$ cd blog-api
$ arika serve --dev

Starting ArikaJS development server...
Using tsx to run TypeScript server with hot-reload...
🚀 Starting ArikaJS application...
[2026-02-15 19:00:00] INFO: ArikaJS application listening on http://localhost:8000

Running Migrations

# Create a migration
$ arika make:migration create_posts_table
✅ Created migration: database/migrations/0001_create_posts_table.ts

# Run migrations
$ arika migrate
Migrating: 0001_create_posts_table
Migrated:  0001_create_posts_table

🛠️ Development

Building from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/arikajs/cli.git
cd cli

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the CLI
npm run build

# Link for local development
npm link

Testing

# Run tests
npm test

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

📚 Related Packages

The CLI works seamlessly with the ArikaJS ecosystem:

• arikajs - Core framework
• @arikajs/router - Routing system
• @arikajs/database - Database ORM
• @arikajs/auth - Authentication
• @arikajs/validation - Validation

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide.

📝 License

The ArikaJS CLI is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

💬 Support

• 📖 Documentation
• 💬 Discord Community
• 🐛 Issue Tracker

Part of the ArikaJS Framework

GitHub • npm