Installation

Like It

Flutter Fast product

You can view the Flutter Fast CLI on pub.dev. Give it a 👍 if you like it!

Activate It

Since the CLI is hosted on pub.dev, you can activate it directly from your terminal:

dart pub global activate flutter_fast_cli

You can further verify that the CLI has been activated by listing your active Dart packages:

dart pub global list

You should see an entry for flutter_fast_cli with the newest version listed on pub.

Uninstall It

If you want to uninstall the CLI, run the following command:

dart pub global deactivate flutter_fast_cli

Build

Use the CLI

The Flutter Fast CLI has two commands that can be used to build a new Flutter app: app and wizard.

Use the wizard command to answer questions about your app one at time:

fast wizard

Otherwise, use the app command and specify your options using the run arguments:

fast app -n my_app -o com.example

Under the hood, the CLI calls flutter create --empty to create the basic Flutter app project structure. The allowed arguments are shown here:

Option	Abbreviation	Description
name (required)	n	The name of the Flutter app. This should follow the Dart package naming conventions
org (optional)	o	The organization name in reverse domain format
paas (optional)	p	The Platform-as-a-Service the app should use. Valid options are "firebase", "supabase", "pocketbase", and "appwrite"
abtests (optional)	b	The AB testing platform the app should use. Valid options are "firebase" and "posthog"
subs (optional)	s	Whether to include subscriptions in the app. Defaults to true.

Running the above command will create a Flutter application with the required code for all Platform-as-a-Service providers (Firebase, Supabase, and Appwrite). By default, the app will use the Firebase files but you can change this behavior by updating the default "PAAS" string in get_it.dart:

@InjectableInit(
  initializerName: r'$initGetIt', 
  preferRelativeImports: true, 
  asExtension: false, 
)
Future<void> configureDependencies() async => await $initGetIt(
      getIt,
      environment: const String.fromEnvironment('PAAS', defaultValue: 'firebase'), // Change this to supabase
    );

Or by running the application with a --dart-define=PAAS=supabase argument:

flutter run --dart-define=PAAS=supabase

Tool Setup Steps

The Flutter Fast CLI takes care of the Flutter code but you'll still need to setup the peripheral tools you want to use.

For example, if you chose "firebase", you'll need to

Create a Firebase project
Run the flutterfire config command
Turn on the email auth setting (see more in the Firebase setup section).

If you chose "supabase", you'll need to perform a similar set of setup steps.

You can find all setup step instructions in the related topic section (ex. Supabase). This will typically be the slowest part of getting started.

Replace the App Logo

In the assets/images folder there is a placeholder image called logo.png. Replace this image with your own but keep the name the same ("logo.png"). Then, run the following command:

flutter pub run flutter_launcher_icons

Run the App

Once the setup steps are complete (and you've added all necessary environment variables to your config.json file), you can run the app. The UI and UX should be nearly identical regardless of the tools you chose. All of the magic happens via abstract services and get_it registration tricks:

If you're using Firebase, new users will be created using FirebaseAuth and saved to Firestore.
If you're using Supabase, new users will be created in Supabase Auth and saved to a "users" table in your Postgres database

Build your Idea

The generated code is boilerplate so the app may seem empty at first. There are a few built-in features, like profile management, a user feedback form, and simple settings, but that's where it ends. To make it your own, replace the contents in HomeView:

import 'package:auto_route/annotations.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:template/app/router.dart';
import 'package:template/app/services.dart';
import 'package:template/features/home/ui/home/widgets/drawer.dart';
import 'home_view_model.dart';

@RoutePage()
class HomeView extends StatelessWidget {
  const HomeView({Key? key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return HomeViewModelBuilder(
      builder: (context, model) {
        return Scaffold(
          appBar: AppBar(
            title: const Text('Home'),
            actions: [
              IconButton(
                icon: const Icon(Icons.settings),
                onPressed: () {
                  router.push(const SettingsRoute());
                },
              ),
            ],
          ),
          drawer: const HomeDrawer(),
          body: // Add your own Home widget!
        );
      },
    );
  }
}

Update

To update the CLI, simply activate it again:

dart pub global activate flutter_fast_cli

Once the CLI is updated, you can check the version by listing your active Dart packages. The package version will be next to the flutter_fast_cli name:

dart pub global list

...

flutter_fast_cli 1.0.1

Deploy

Create an Upload Keystore

Follow the instructions here to create an upload keystore for your Android application.

:::note The key.properties file should not be checked into version control. It is included in the .gitignore file in the android folder :::

Manually Release First Android App

I know, its sad. Unfortunately, not everything can be automated. If you try to use the Fastlane files to release the first version of your app, you will see this error:

Google Api Error: Invalid request - Only releases with status draft may be created on draft app.

This GitHub issue indicates that you only have to manually release a version of your app to the alpha track to start using Fastlane.

Included Scripts

The Flutter Fast boiler plate comes with convenient bash scripts for building and deploying your app using Fastlane. Run configurations have also been prebuilt for each of these scripts in Android Studio and VS Code.

Get started topic