chimera-stack-cli 0.2.3

A template-based development environment manager

ChimeraStack CLI

🐉 One command to launch a production-ready development stack.

Skip the boilerplate, focus on code.

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📚 Table of Contents

1. Why ChimeraStack?
2. TL;DR Quick Demo
3. Key Features
4. Installation
5. Creating Your First Project
6. Template Gallery
7. How It Works
8. Authoring Custom Templates
9. Roadmap
10. Contributing
11. License

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❓ Why ChimeraStack?

Persona	Pain Points	How ChimeraStack Helps
Beginners	Confusing Docker setup, port clashes, missing environment variables	chimera create blog -t fullstack/react-php → ready-to-run project with sensible defaults
Students / Teachers	Need consistent environments on many machines	Project templates ensure everyone runs identical containers and ports
Senior Devs	Tiring to maintain many local micro-services	Dynamic port allocator + compose fragments = run multiple stacks side-by-side without conflicts

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⚡ TL;DR Quick Demo

# Install (isolated) – requires Python 3.8+
pipx install chimera-stack-cli

# Spin up a React + PHP + MySQL stack in <10 s
chimera create my-app -t fullstack/react-php -v mysql
cd my-app

docker compose up -d  # 🚀 Boom – services are live!

Open http://localhost:8xxx (ports are auto-assigned) and start coding.

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✨ Key Features

• 🔌 Template Catalogue – ready-made stacks for frontend, backend & databases
• 🔄 Smart Port Allocation – avoid address already in use forever
• 🗜️ Zero-Config – works with a single CLI command, no manual Docker files
• 🧩 Composable – mix components or add plugins (coming v0.3)
• 🧑‍🎓 Learning-Friendly – minimal jargon, helpful errors & docs

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📦 Installation

Method	Command
pipx (recommended)	pipx install chimera-stack-cli
pip	pip install chimera-stack-cli
Homebrew	brew install chimerastack/tap/cli (soon)
Binary	Grab the latest release from Releases page & chmod +x

Requires Docker 20.10+ and Docker Compose plugin.

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🛠️ Creating Your First Project

# Interactive wizard
chimera create my-blog

# Non-interactive: choose stack + variant up-front
chimera create my-api -t backend/php-web -v postgresql

Once finished:

cd my-api
docker compose up -d

Your containers are accessible on dynamically allocated ports printed by the CLI.

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🎨 Template Gallery (v0.2.2)

Category	Templates
Frontend	frontend/react, frontend/vue (soon)
Backend	backend/php-web, backend/node-express (roadmap)
Databases	database/mysql, database/postgresql, database/mariadb
Fullstack	fullstack/react-php

Run chimera list to explore the full list and search by tag.

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🔍 How It Works

1. Selects stack + components based on CLI flags.
2. Renders all files through a Jinja2 pipeline (variable substitution).
3. Allocates free ports via PortAllocator (ranges defined in config/ports.yaml).
4. Executes optional post_copy tasks for final clean-up.
5. Outputs a ready project you can commit to Git or deploy.

No global state, no magic network shims – just Docker Compose done right.

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🧑‍🎨 Authoring Custom Templates

Want to add Django + Redis? Check out the dedicated guide:

➡️ docs/authoring-templates.md

It covers directory layout, template.yaml schema, Jinja2 helpers, testing & publishing.

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🔮 Roadmap

Version	Highlights
v0.3	Plugin system (chimera add redis, monitoring…)
v0.4	Mix-&-Match wizard (chimera init --frontend react --backend node)
v0.5	chimera deploy to Coolify or bare VPS
v1.0	Stable API, web/CLI sync, template marketplace

See ROADMAP.md for the full list.

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🤝 Contributing

1. Fork → create feature branch → commit (semantic) → PR.
2. Run pre-commit & pytest locally – CI must stay green.
3. Need help? Open an issue or start a discussion.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for environment setup, commit policy & test guide.

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📄 License

MIT © Amirofcodes & contributors