Every command is art <command>. In a project created with art init, run them with npx art or through the npm scripts (npm run dev, npm run build, npm run check). A [path] defaults to ./src if it exists, otherwise the current directory.

Projects #

art init <name> [--template t] #

Creates a project: src/app.art, public/, the spec for your agent (ARTSCRIPT.md, ARTSCRIPT-EDIT.md), AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md and a Cursor rule (.cursor/rules/artscript.mdc). Templates: todo, blog, users, notes, catalog, crm.

art dev [path] [--port 3000] #

The development server: compiles on every save and reloads the page, serves the api with a local database in .art/data/, and prints emails instead of sending them.

Dev tools: press Alt+A in the page (or click the "art" badge at the bottom right) for a panel with every mounted component and its props, states, computed and data, live. Click a state's value to change it; what each update writes to the page flashes. From the console, or for an agent driving the browser, __art.snapshot() returns the same as plain objects. None of this is in the production build.

art build [path] [--out dist] [--sourcemap] [--base /sub] [--prerender [--site url]] #

The production build: index.html, one minified app.js (the runtime and every use module bundled in) and app.css. A dynamic import() inside a use module becomes its own file in chunks/, downloaded only when it runs. With apis, also server.js (a single file with the server and its packages, no node_modules) and a Dockerfile.

• --prerender: an HTML file per page without params, with its content and meta tags.
• --site https://example.com: with --prerender, also sitemap.xml and robots.txt.
• --base /sub: the app is served under that path.
• --sourcemap: app.js.map, pointing back to the .art files.
• --demo: a full-stack app as static files. The api, accounts and server fns run in the visitor's browser with the server's rules, and their data stays in that browser: a demo that costs nothing to host (any static host, no server). See Deploying.

Code #

art check [path] [--ai] #

Typechecks the project. Each error has a code, a location, what was expected and found, and the suggested fixes. --ai prints one JSON line per error.

art fmt [path] [--write] #

The canonical format. Without --write it prints the result; with it, it rewrites the files.

art patch [file|-] [--dir path] [--dry-run] [--ai] #

Applies a patch (from a file, or stdin without one): replace, insert before|after, append, remove, set and add operations on paths of the code. Atomic and typechecked: if anything fails, nothing is written. --dry-run checks without writing.

art context [Name...] [--dir path] [--budget N] #

Compact context for a model. Without names, the project map (models, apis, components and pages with their props). With names, their source and every addressable patch path. --budget caps the size in tokens.

art add <Component...> #

Copies official components into the project as source: DataTable, Pagination, ConfirmButton, SearchBox, Stat, EmptyState.

art test [path] #

Runs every test "..." { } block in a simulated browser, with the real api and a fresh database for each test.

Tools #

art mcp [--dir path] #

An MCP server over stdio with art_spec, art_check, art_context and art_patch. See Working with AI agents.

art lsp #

A language server over stdio: live errors with the compiler's fixes, formatting and completion, for any editor with LSP. The VS Code extension in editors/vscode uses it. For highlighting in Zed, Neovim and Helix there is a tree-sitter grammar in editors/tree-sitter-artscript.

art ast <file> #

The syntax tree of a file as JSON.

art bench #

Token and byte measurements against React and Svelte (inside the ArtScript repository).