Project Commands

Commands for creating, initializing, serving, and building FastAPI projects.

create

Creates a brand-new FastAPI project with a complete directory structure, configuration files, database setup, migration tooling, and dependency management — all ready to run.

fastman create <project-name> [options]

Options

Option	Description	Default
--pattern	Architecture pattern: feature, api, or layer	feature
--database	Database engine: sqlite, postgresql, mysql, oracle, firebase	sqlite
--package	Package manager: uv, poetry, pipenv, pip	auto-detected
--minimal	Skip optional dev dependencies (faker, pytest, httpx)	—
--graphql	Include GraphQL support with Strawberry (app/core/graphql.py)	—

Examples

# Simple project with defaults (feature pattern, SQLite, auto package manager)
fastman create my-api

# Production-ready with PostgreSQL and feature architecture
fastman create my-api --pattern=feature --database=postgresql

# Quick prototype with API versioning pattern
fastman create prototype --pattern=api --database=sqlite

# Firebase project (no SQL, no Alembic migrations)
fastman create mobile-backend --database=firebase

# Minimal project — smaller dependency footprint
fastman create tiny-api --minimal

# Include GraphQL support alongside REST
fastman create gql-api --graphql

What Gets Created

my-api/
├── app/
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── config.py          # Pydantic settings
│   │   ├── database.py        # SQLAlchemy setup
│   │   └── dependencies.py    # Common dependencies
│   ├── features/              # Your feature modules
│   └── main.py               # App entry point
├── database/
│   ├── migrations/           # Alembic migrations
│   └── seeders/              # Database seeders
├── tests/                    # Test directory
├── .env                      # Default / local override (gitignored)
├── .env.develop              # Development settings
├── .env.staging              # Staging settings
├── .fastmanrc                # Project shape + env lock (gitignored)
├── .gitignore
├── alembic.ini               # Migration config
├── pyproject.toml            # Dependencies
└── README.md

note

No .env.production is generated. Production secrets should come from a secrets manager (AWS SSM, Vault, k8s, etc.) rather than a committed placeholder file. See the deployment guide.

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serve

Starts the FastAPI development server using Uvicorn with hot-reload enabled by default. The server watches for file changes and automatically restarts.

fastman serve [options]

Serve Options

Option	Description	Default
--host	Network interface to bind to	127.0.0.1
--port	Port number to listen on	8000
--env	Environment file to use (loads .env.<name>)	auto-detect
--reload	Explicitly enable hot reload (this is the default behavior)	true
--no-reload	Disable hot reload (for production-like testing)	—

When --env is not specified, Fastman auto-detects: .env.develop if it exists, otherwise .env.

Serve Examples

# Default — localhost:8000 with hot reload, auto-detects .env.develop or .env
fastman serve

# Use develop environment
fastman serve --env=develop

# Use staging environment
fastman serve --env=staging

# Custom port
fastman serve --port=3000

# Bind to all interfaces (accessible from other machines on the network)
fastman serve --host=0.0.0.0

# Production-like mode without reload
fastman serve --host=0.0.0.0 --no-reload

tip

Under the hood, Fastman runs python -m uvicorn app.main:app with the appropriate flags. This ensures it always works inside virtual environments, even when uvicorn isn't on your system PATH.

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init

Initializes Fastman configuration in an existing FastAPI project. Use this when you have a project that wasn't created with fastman create but you want to use Fastman's commands.

fastman init

Creates the necessary directory structure (app/core/, app/features/, app/console/commands/) if they don't already exist.

---

build

Prepares your project for production deployment. Can run tests, type checking, and optionally build a Docker image.

fastman build [--docker]

Build Options

Option	Description
--docker	Build a Docker image using the project's Dockerfile

Build Examples

# Standard build — runs pytest and mypy
fastman build

# Build and create a Docker image
fastman build --docker