pulsar_cli

Official Command Line Interface for the Pulsar Web Framework

Pulsar CLI provides project scaffolding, development server, production builds, environment diagnostics, and advanced tooling designed for a clean and scalable developer experience.

Installation

Activate globally:

dart pub global activate pulsar_cli

after activation use ̣

pulsar --help

Creating a project

Use the create command to use the project configuration prompt:

pulsar create

or use the configuration options:

Option Description Values
--template Project template default, minimum, empty
--use-cdn UI CDN integration none, tailwind, materialize
--icons Icon library none, material, bootstrap
-y Skip interactive prompts —

Example:

pulsar create project_name --template default --use-cdn tailwind --icons bootstrap

Development Server

Start the Pulsar Dev Server:

pulsar serve

Default port: 8080

Options

Option Description
--port, -p Custom port
--watch Enable file watching (live reload)

If --watch is disabled, you can manually rebuild:

  • Press r → rebuild

  • Press q → quit server

The Dev Server:

  • Compiles Dart to JavaScript

  • Extracts CSS to avoid FOUC

  • Serves assets from .dart_tool/pulsar

  • Supports SPA routing fallback

  • Injects live reload via WebSocket

Production build

Build for production:

pulsar build

Options

Option Description
--release Optimized build (default)
--no-release Development-level compilation

The build command:

  • Compiles Dart to optimized JS

  • Extracts precomputed CSS

  • Copies static assets

  • Generates SPA redirects (_redirects, vercel.json)

  • Outputs to build/

Environment Diagnostics

Run doctor command:

pulsar doctor

Example output

  Pulsar Doctor
────────────────────────────────
✓ Dart SDK detected (0.1s)
✓ Project structure valid (1ms)
✓ Dependencies look good (2ms)
✓ .dart_tool directory present (0ms)
✓ Routing base configuration looks valid (0ms)
✓ CSS extraction present (0ms)

────────────────────────────────
Score: 92 / 100 (Excellent)

6 checks passed
Pulsar environment looks healthy

CI Mode

pulsar doctor --ci

In CI mode:

  • Output is simplified

  • Exit code is 1 if health score < 70

  • Designed for GitHub Actions / GitLab / CI pipelines

Clean Commando

Remove internal build artifacts:

pulsar clean

This clears:

  • .dart_tool/pulsar

  • Compiled JS bundles

  • Extracted CSS artifacts

Useful when debugging build inconsistencies.

Architecture Overview

  • Pulsar CLI is built around:

    • PulsarCompiler

    • Centralized compilation pipeline

    • CSS extraction

    • Output isolation inside .dart_tool/pulsar

  • DevServer

    • WebSocket live reload

    • Manual rebuild mode

    • SPA fallback support

  • Doctor

    • Environment validation

    • Health scoring

    • CI-ready diagnostics

Requirements

  • Dart SDK ^3.9.0

  • Modern browser

Libraries

pulsar_cli