pw check

pw check

pw check plans everything pw generate would write into _pw_gen.go files, compares it against what is on disk, and writes nothing. It takes no flags.

Generated Go is excluded from version control, so a repository diff cannot show that it has gone stale. This command is what stands in for that diff:

pw: generated files are stale:
  handlers/home_pw_gen.go

It exits non-zero on that, and zero when every file matches its sources. A file that is missing entirely counts as stale — which is what a clean checkout looks like, since nothing committed the output.

What it does not check

Only the generated Go. The stylesheet and the asset tree that pw generate also writes are excluded from version control too, and for those there is nothing committed to compare against at all.

So this command verifies less than pw generate writes, and the difference matters when you read a green CI run: it means the generated Go matches its sources, not that the tree compiles. go build is still what answers that.

Two neighbouring commands answer the adjacent questions, and none of the three runs the others:

Command	Answers
pw check	generated Go that no longer matches its sources
pw fmt --check	template and query sources that are not in canonical form
pw doctor	configuration, wiring, and what a named environment will actually run

In CI

pw fmt --check
pw check
pw build

pw fmt rewrites sources, so it comes first: a formatting pass after generation would leave the generated output describing the previous text.

pw doctor runs this check itself before reporting the configuration sections it reads out of generated metadata, and downgrades those sections when it fails — there is no point describing a configuration surface from a stale description of it.

In a package project

A component package commits its generated Go, because a consumer builds with go build alone and regenerates nothing. Nothing in the consumer’s project can detect a stale artifact beyond a compile error naming your package, so this command is the release gate, and pw init --kind package scaffolds a workflow that runs it.