Quick Start

Philosophy

• Roll your own stack: pick only what you need, nothing extra.
• Minimal templates: bare-bones scaffolds with zero bloat.
• Latest dependencies: always current and stable by default.
• Idiomatic per language: a generated Python project should look like a Python developer wrote it — and a Go or Rust one should look like a Go or Rust developer wrote it.
• Free and open source: forever.

Languages

TriStack scaffolds backend projects in multiple languages. Each has its own option set (framework, ORM, migrations, package manager, addons) in the Compatibility reference.

Install the CLI

TriStack installs as a standalone native binary for Windows, macOS, and Linux, or runs on demand with uv over Python. Pick your platform:

# run on demand — no install needed
uvx tristack

# or install once with uv
uv tool install tristack

Get Started

Prerequisites

You only need the runtime of whatever language you scaffold, plus Git (optional, git-scm.com) to initialize a repository:

CLI (prompts)

uvx tristack

Follow the interactive prompts to pick your language, framework, frontend, ORM/migrations, database, package manager, and addons.

Skip prompts and use the default stack:

uvx tristack --yes

Stack Builder (UI)

• Visit /new to pick your stack, preview the generated file tree live, and copy the exact CLI command. The builder supports Python, Go, and Rust stacks.
• The command you copy runs verbatim:

uvx tristack my-tristack-app \
  --language python \
  --framework fastapi \
  --frontend none \
  --orm sqlmodel \
  --migrations alembic \
  --database sqlite \
  --package-manager uv \
  --addons docker ruff pytest \
  --install

AI agent (JSON-first)

Let an LLM CLI or CI job scaffold projects for you with the fully JSON-first create-json command — no prompts, one machine-readable payload. See Agent Workflows.

Native Claude Code / Codex plugins ship in a later phase.

Common Setups — Python

The examples below use the Python runner (uvx tristack).

Default Stack

uvx tristack my-api \
  --language python \
  --framework fastapi \
  --orm sqlmodel \
  --migrations alembic \
  --database sqlite \
  --package-manager uv \
  --addons docker ruff pytest

Postgres API

uvx tristack my-api \
  --language python \
  --framework fastapi \
  --orm sqlalchemy \
  --migrations alembic \
  --database postgres \
  --package-manager uv \
  --addons docker pytest

Django Monolith

uvx tristack my-django \
  --language python \
  --framework django \
  --database postgres \
  --package-manager poetry \
  --addons docker ruff mypy pytest

Minimal Flask Service

uvx tristack my-micro \
  --language python \
  --framework flask \
  --database none \
  --package-manager uv \
  --addons pytest

Server-rendered (HTMX)

uvx tristack my-app \
  --language python \
  --framework fastapi \
  --frontend htmx \
  --orm sqlmodel \
  --migrations alembic \
  --database sqlite \
  --package-manager uv \
  --addons ruff pytest

Common Setups — Go

The Go CLI runs as the standalone tristack binary.

Gin + GORM + SQLite

tristack my-api \
  --language go \
  --framework gin \
  --orm gorm \
  --migrations goose \
  --database sqlite \
  --package-manager go \
  --addons docker air golangci-lint

Fiber + sqlx + Postgres

tristack my-api \
  --language go \
  --framework fiber \
  --orm sqlx \
  --migrations golang-migrate \
  --database postgres \
  --package-manager go \
  --addons docker air golangci-lint

Common Setups — Rust

The Rust CLI runs as the standalone tristack binary.

Axum + SeaORM + SQLite

tristack my-api \
  --language rust \
  --framework axum \
  --orm seaorm \
  --migrations none \
  --database sqlite \
  --package-manager cargo \
  --addons docker cargo-watch clippy

Actix Web + Diesel + Postgres

tristack my-api \
  --language rust \
  --framework actix-web \
  --orm diesel \
  --migrations none \
  --database postgres \
  --package-manager cargo \
  --addons docker cargo-watch clippy

Flags Cheat Sheet

See the full list in the CLI Reference. Option sets are per language:

• --language: python, go, rust
• --framework (python): fastapi, litestar, django, flask
• --framework (go): gin, fiber, echo, chi, stdlib
• --framework (rust): axum, actix-web, rocket, warp, salvo, loco
• --frontend (python): htmx, none
• --frontend (go): htmx, none
• --frontend (rust): htmx, none
• --orm (python): sqlmodel, sqlalchemy, tortoise, none
• --orm (go): sqlc, gorm, sqlx, none
• --orm (rust): seaorm, diesel, sqlx-rust, none
• --migrations (python): alembic, none
• --migrations (go): goose, golang-migrate, none
• --migrations (rust): none
• --database: sqlite, postgres, mysql, none
• --package-manager (python): uv, poetry, pip
• --package-manager (go): go
• --package-manager (rust): cargo
• --addons (python): docker, ruff, mypy, pytest, github-actions, none
• --addons (go): docker, air, golangci-lint, github-actions, none
• --addons (rust): docker, cargo-watch, clippy, github-actions, none

Next Steps