Overview

One command connects the project lifecycle. pw scaffolds the first files, compiles templates and SQL into Go, runs the development loop, manages the database, and produces release builds.

pw help

Usage: pw <command> [arguments]

Commands:
  init      create a project in a new directory
  add       enable a capability in a project that declined it
  new       scaffold a handler or a page beside the ones you have
  generate  write everything a compiler needs, stopping before the compiler
  check     report generated files that are stale or missing
  fmt       format template sources into their canonical form
  i18n      reconcile message catalogs against the templates that use them
  migrate   inspect and apply database migrations
  seed      load seed datasets into the database
  build     run generate and then compile the project
  dev       watch, regenerate, rebuild, and restart
  doctor    report what a named environment will actually run
  version   print the version, revision, and toolchain
  help      print this message

Install it with Homebrew, Nix, a release archive, or the Go toolchain — see Installation.

The commands

Project

Command	Purpose
pw init	create a runnable project
pw add	install a capability the project declined at init
pw new	scaffold one more handler, route, and template
pw generate	write every build input, stopping before the compiler
pw check	report generated Go that is stale or missing
pw fmt	format template and query sources into their canonical form
pw i18n	reconcile message catalogs against the templates that use them
pw dev	watch, regenerate, migrate, and restart
pw build	produce a release binary
pw doctor	report what an environment would run, and what is wrong
pw rename	rename a template declaration and everything that names it
pw lsp	serve editor analysis over the Language Server Protocol

pw fmt, pw i18n, pw rename, and pw lsp are documented with the work they belong to rather than on a page of their own. Formatting appears under pw check, which is where a formatting pass has to run in a build and why it comes before generation; the catalog commands appear in Translated Pages, beside the message syntax whose catalogs they maintain; and pw rename and pw lsp appear in Editor Support, one because an editor is where you usually reach it and the other because you never run it yourself.

Database

Command	Purpose
pw migrate	inspect, apply, and roll back migrations
pw seed	load seed datasets

Finding the project

Every command except pw init needs a project, but it does not need to run at the project root. pw walks upward from the working directory until it finds popcornweb.toml, allowing subcommands to work from any nested directory. If the search reaches the top without that file, the command fails with popcornweb.toml not found.

Exit status

0 on success, 1 on a command failure, 2 when no command was given. Errors are written to standard error prefixed with pw:.

Not to be confused with

The deployed binary has a different command line: configuration flags, configuration scaffold output, and application-defined subcommands. See Custom Commands for that boundary.