devctl

Devctl

devctl is a non-interactive CLI for defining, validating, and materializing reproducible Go projects. A checked-in devctl.yaml Manifest describes the Project, its runtime Capabilities and Resources, its API and event Contracts, and the project-owned tools used to generate code.

Devctl keeps each workflow explicit: changing the Manifest does not install tools or rewrite application code, and sync, lint, and gen never invoke one another implicitly.

Requirements

• Go 1.26
• Git for git and devctl sources
• Mise for scaffolded toolchains and quality tasks
• Docker for the optional local PostgreSQL walkthrough or the published Devctl image

Install

Install the latest published Go module:

go install github.com/devctllabs/devctl/cmd/devctl@latest
devctl --version

For builds from the current source checkout, see the temporary sibling-module requirement.

Start a Project

mkdir orders-api
cd orders-api

devctl init manifest \
  --lang go \
  --preset http-service \
  --name orders-api \
  --module example.com/orders-api

devctl add db primary --kind postgres
devctl init scaffold
mise install
go mod tidy
devctl validate

The published container image is available at ghcr.io/devctllabs/devctl. Stable releases provide both a SemVer tag and latest; release candidates provide only their version tag:

docker run --rm ghcr.io/devctllabs/devctl:latest --version

The image includes Devctl, Go, Git, Node, and quicktype so a mounted Project can use Devctl's sync, lint, and gen workflows. Project-declared Go tools remain owned by that Project and are resolved from its go.mod.

Continue with the HTTP and PostgreSQL getting started guide to define an Orders API, apply a migration, implement the generated server interface, and make a real database round trip.

The normal Project lifecycle is:

init or mutate Manifest -> scaffold -> validate -> sync -> lint -> gen

Only run the steps required by a change. For example, a local server Contract does not need sync, while a changed external Contract does.

Documentation

• Documentation index
• User guide
• Command reference
• Manifest reference
• Output and error contract
• Development guide

Release artifacts are published as devctl_<version>_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz for Linux amd64 and macOS amd64/arm64. Releases use stable and RC lines and are created as draft GitHub Releases for manual publication.

The documentation on main describes the current source tree. For a released binary, read the documentation at the matching Git tag.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.