CLI And Starter Contract

This page describes the current Frontron contract after restoring the 0.8.4 / 0.8.5 style product story.

Goal

Frontron now centers on this split:

• create-frontron is the main starter/template entrypoint
• frontron is the support CLI/runtime package behind that starter

Official start flow

The default supported flow is:

1. run npm create frontron@latest
2. install dependencies
3. run npm run app:dev
4. later run npm run app:build

Official structure

The generated starter still uses the same official shape:

my-app/
  src/
  public/
  package.json
  vite.config.ts
  frontron.config.ts
  frontron/

frontron/ stays the dedicated app-layer area.

Responsibility split

create-frontron owns:

• starter generation
• starter defaults and template files
• the first-run developer experience

frontron owns:

• config discovery
• CLI commands
• runtime/build support
• bridge/runtime helpers
• frontron/client
• Rust slot support

Current state

The repository already implements this split.

• starter users begin with create-frontron
• generated projects depend on frontron
• frontron still provides frontron dev, frontron build, frontron check, and defineConfig
• compatible manual installs can still use the same config structure

Manual path

Manual setup is still valid, but it is now secondary:

1. install frontron
2. add frontron.config.ts
3. add app:dev and app:build
4. run through the CLI

Renderer contract

Renderer code should still use only frontron/client.

The product direction changed, but the renderer-facing API did not.