Essam CLI

A Dart command-line tool that scaffolds complete Clean Architecture features for Flutter projects — generate features, add use cases, and keep your dependency injection and barrel files in sync, automatically.

pub.dev Dart SDK License: MIT

Overview

Building features with Clean Architecture means creating a lot of boilerplate: entities, models, repositories, data sources, use cases, cubits, states, and screens — each in its own layer, each importing the others. Essam CLI does all of that for you with a single command.

It generates a consistent folder structure across the domain, data, and presentation layers, follows the BLoC/Cubit pattern, and keeps your dependency injection and barrel (export) files in sync as your feature grows.

Migrating from twafok_cli? Run dart pub global activate essam_cli and replace the twafok command with essam. All commands and flags are identical.

Features

  • Full feature scaffolding — one command creates the entire layered structure for a new feature.
  • Incremental use cases — add new use cases to an existing feature without touching any boilerplate by hand; the tool updates the repository, data source, and cubit for you.
  • Automatic dependency injection — generates a *_di.dart file that registers data sources, repositories, use cases, and cubits with get_it.
  • Barrel file generation — produces a single export file per feature so the rest of your app imports one path instead of many. The package name is read automatically from your project's pubspec.yaml.
  • Auto-formatting — runs dart format and dart fix --apply after generation so the output is immediately clean and lint-friendly.
  • Smart path detection — all commands can auto-detect the current feature when run from inside its directory.

Generated Structure

Running essam create <FeatureName> produces the following layout under lib/features/<feature_name>/:

lib/features/<feature_name>/
├── data/
│   ├── data_sources/        # Remote data source (Dio-based)
│   ├── models/              # Model extending the domain entity
│   └── repositories/        # Repository implementation
├── domain/
│   ├── entities/            # Equatable entity
│   ├── repositories/        # Abstract base repository
│   └── use_cases/           # Use case + Request/Response classes
├── presentation/
│   ├── controllers/         # Cubit + State
│   ├── screens/             # Screen widget
│   └── widgets/             # Feature-specific widgets
├── <feature_name>.dart      # Barrel file (auto-generated exports)
└── <feature_name>_di.dart   # Dependency injection (auto-generated)

Installation

Essam CLI requires the Dart SDK ≥ 3.0.0.

dart pub global activate essam_cli

This registers the essam executable globally so you can run it from any Flutter project directory.

Note: Make sure Dart's pub-cache bin directory is on your PATH.

  • macOS / Linux: export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.pub-cache/bin"
  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pub\Cache\bin

From source

git clone https://github.com/muhamaadessam/essam_cli.git
cd essam_cli
dart pub get
dart pub global activate --source path .

Usage

Run all commands from the root of your Flutter project.

essam <command> [arguments] [options]

Commands

Command Aliases Description
create_feature create, cr Create a complete feature with all layers
add_usecase add, add-use-case Add a new use case to an existing feature
generate_di gen-di (Re)generate the dependency injection file
generate_paths gen-paths, gen-barrel (Re)generate the barrel/export file
help --help, -h Show usage information

Options

Option Short Description Default
--package -p Package name used in generated imports twafok
--help -h Show help for the command —

Note: generate_paths reads the package name directly from your project's pubspec.yaml, so you never need to pass --package for that command.

Examples

Create a new feature

essam create Profile
essam create_feature Authentication   # full command name
essam cr Orders                       # short alias

This creates the full lib/features/Profile/ directory structure, generates all layer files, produces the profile_di.dart DI file and profile.dart barrel file, and then formats the project.

Console output:

🚀 Creating feature: Profile
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📁 Creating feature structure...
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/data/data_sources
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/data/models
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/data/repositories
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/domain/entities
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/domain/repositories
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/domain/use_cases
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/presentation/controllers
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/presentation/screens
  ✅ Created: .../lib/features/Profile/presentation/widgets
📝 Generating entity and model...
  ✅ Entity created: profile_entity.dart
  ✅ Model created: profile_model.dart
  ✅ Base repository created: base_profile_repository.dart
  ✅ Repository created: profile_repository.dart
  ✅ Remote data source created: profile_remote_data_source.dart
  ✅ UseCase created: get_profile_use_case.dart
  ✅ Cubit and State created
  ✅ Screen created: profile_screen.dart

🔄 Generating DI and barrel files...
 ✅ Generated: profile_di.dart
 ✅ Generated: profile.dart

🎨 Formatting project code...
 ✅ Project formatted successfully

🔧 Running dart fix --apply...
 ✅ Dart fix completed successfully

🎉 Feature 'Profile' created successfully!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📁 Feature location: .../lib/features/Profile

📝 Next steps:
   1. Add your business logic to the cubit
   2. Update the API endpoints in remote_data_source
   3. Add more use cases using: essam add lib/features/Profile <action>

Add a use case to an existing feature

Provide the feature path and the action name:

essam add_usecase lib/features/Profile update_profile

Or run it from inside the feature folder — the path is auto-detected:

cd lib/features/Profile
essam add update_profile

This generates the new use case file (with Request and Response classes) and updates the abstract repository, repository implementation, remote data source, and cubit to include the new method — without touching any existing logic.

Console output:

🚀 Essam CLI - Adding UseCase
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
   UseCase     : UpdateProfileUseCase
   Feature     : Profile
   Path        : .../lib/features/Profile
   Package     : my_app

📝 Generating files...
  ✅ UseCase file generated
  ✅ Base repository updated
  ✅ Repository implementation updated
  ✅ Remote data source updated
  ✅ Cubit updated

✨ Success!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✅ UseCase 'UpdateProfileUseCase' added to 'Profile' feature

📝 Next steps:
   1. Update UpdateProfileRequest fields to match your API
   2. Update the endpoint in RemoteDataSource
   3. Call updateProfile() from UI

Regenerate the dependency injection file

essam generate_di lib/features/Profile
essam gen-di                            # auto-detects the feature when run inside its folder

Scans the feature directory for data sources, repositories, use cases, and cubits, then generates a <feature_name>_di.dart file that wires them all up with get_it.

Regenerate the barrel file

essam generate_paths lib/features/Profile
essam gen-barrel                         # auto-detects the feature when run inside its folder

Walks the feature directory and produces a single <feature_name>.dart file that exports every Dart file in the feature (excluding state files, DI files, and code-generated files such as .g.dart and .freezed.dart). The package name is read automatically from pubspec.yaml.

Generated Code Conventions

The generated code assumes your project provides a small set of shared base classes — typically provided by the twafok_shared package or your own core library:

Base class Purpose
BaseUseCase<Response, Request> Base class for use cases
BaseCubit<State> Base cubit class
BaseState / PageState State management primitives
BaseView<Cubit, State> Base widget for feature screens
Failure / ServerFailure Error types used with Result<T>
DioHelper Network call wrapper (around dio)

Generated files are marked with a // GENERATED FILE - DO NOT EDIT header. Files that you are expected to customize — such as Request field definitions, API endpoints, and entity fields — are flagged in the command's Next steps output.

How It Works

bin/essam_cli.dart           Entry point — parses the top-level command and delegates
lib/commands/                One class per command; each parses its own arguments
lib/generators/              Focused generators that create or patch individual artifacts
lib/services/                Shared helpers (NamingUtils, FileUtils, InjectionService)
lib/templates/               Code templates used during generation

When you add a use case, the generators insert the new method signatures and field declarations before the closing brace of the relevant class, preserving all your existing code.

Dependencies

Package Version Purpose
args ^2.4.0 Command-line argument parsing
path ^1.9.0 Cross-platform file path manipulation
io ^1.0.4 I/O utilities for CLI apps

Troubleshooting

essam: command not found The pub-cache bin directory is not on your PATH. Add the following to your shell profile:

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.pub-cache/bin"   # macOS / Linux

On Windows, add %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pub\Cache\bin to your system PATH.

Feature already exists error The tool exits with an error if the feature directory already exists. Remove or rename the existing directory before running essam create again.

Auto-detect fails for add / gen-di / gen-barrel These commands detect your feature by looking for domain/, data/, and presentation/ sibling directories. Run them from inside the feature folder (e.g. lib/features/Profile) or pass the path explicitly.

Roadmap

  • Configurable templates so teams can adapt the generated code to their own base classes.
  • A --dry-run flag to preview generated files before writing them.
  • Unit tests covering the generators and naming utilities.
  • Interactive prompts for field definitions during feature creation.

Contributing

  1. Fork the repository on GitHub.
  2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-improvement.
  3. Make your changes and run dart format . and dart analyze.
  4. Commit and push your branch, then open a Pull Request.

Please open an issue first for larger changes so we can discuss the approach before you invest time in implementation.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Author

Mohamed Essam — @muhamaadessam

Libraries

commands/add_usecase_command
commands/create_feature_command
commands/generate_di_command
commands/generate_paths_command
generators/base_repository_generator
generators/cubit_generator
generators/datasource_generator
generators/repository_generator
generators/usecase_generator
services/file_service
services/injection_service
services/naming_service
templates/usecase_template