devstart 0.3.2

CLI tool that scaffolds Python projects with dev tooling pre-configured

DevStart

A zero-config Python project scaffolder. One command, and you get a production-ready project with linting, type checking, tests, Docker, CI, pre-commit hooks, and a dev container — all wired up, all consistent with each other, all ready to use.

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Why DevStart?

Starting a Python project is repetitive and error-prone. You pick a directory layout, write pyproject.toml from scratch, configure ruff and mypy and pytest individually, write a Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml, set up GitHub Actions, add a devcontainer, and then spend an hour making sure all of those agree with each other.

DevStart does it in one command. The result is a project that:

• Runs make check (the full pre-commit suite: lint + format + type-check + secret scan + security scan + spell check + tests) cleanly the moment it's created.
• Uses one source of truth for tool config (pyproject.toml) and one source of truth for code-quality checks (pre-commit, which CI also runs — no version drift).
• Follows modern Python packaging conventions: src/ layout, hatch dynamic versioning, PEP 561 typed marker.

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Installation

Recommended:

uv tool install devstart

Or with pip:

pip install devstart

DevStart itself requires Python 3.14+. Generated projects can target 3.12, 3.13, or 3.14.

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Quick Start

# Interactive — prompts for missing values
devstart new myproject

# Non-interactive — skip prompts, use defaults
devstart new myproject -y

# Scaffold into the current directory
mkdir myproject && cd myproject
devstart new . -y

After scaffolding:

cd myproject
make setup        # install uv, sync deps, register git hooks
make check        # run the full pre-commit suite (canonical quality gate)
make dev          # run the project: uv run python -m myproject

That's it — the project is fully configured and ready to develop in.

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CLI Reference

devstart new [NAME] [OPTIONS]
devstart --version

Flag	Default	Description
[NAME]	(prompted)	Project name. Use . to scaffold into the current directory.
--description, -d	(prompted)	One-line project description
--author, -a	(prompted)	Author name
--python	3.14	Target Python version. Allowed: 3.12, 3.13, 3.14.
--no-interactive, -y	false	Skip all prompts and fill missing values with defaults

Project name rules

• Must be a valid Python identifier (letters, digits, underscores; cannot start with a digit).
• Cannot be a Python keyword (class, def, …), a dunder name (__init__), or a stdlib module name (json, re, …).
• Hyphens are not allowed in explicit names — devstart new my-project is rejected.
• When using devstart new ., the directory name is kept verbatim for things that depend on the host path (devcontainer mount, compose volume target). Non-identifier characters are converted to underscores for the Python package name. Example: in test-proj/, you get src/test_proj/ and the devcontainer still binds to /workspaces/test-proj.

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What You Get

Every generated project has this layout:

myproject/
├── src/myproject/
│   ├── __init__.py            # __version__ + __app_name__ (single source of truth)
│   ├── __main__.py            # `python -m myproject` entry point
│   ├── main.py
│   └── py.typed               # PEP 561 marker — package ships type info
├── tests/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── conftest.py
│   └── test_main.py
├── docker/
│   ├── Dockerfile             # uv-based, multi-stage layer caching
│   ├── docker-compose.yml         # dev compose
│   └── docker-compose.prod.yml    # prod overrides
├── docs/diagrams/
│   └── class_diagram.puml         # PlantUML starter
├── .vscode/
│   ├── launch.json            # debugpy: "Debug Module" + "Debug Current File"
│   └── settings.json          # format-on-save (ruff), mypy strict, pytest
├── .devcontainer/
│   ├── devcontainer.json
│   └── docker-compose.yml
├── .github/workflows/
│   └── ci.yml                 # runs pre-commit/action
├── .githooks/
│   └── pre-commit             # executable wrapper, registered by `make setup`
├── .pre-commit-config.yaml
├── pyproject.toml             # all tool config lives here
├── Makefile                   # `make help` lists every target
├── README.md
├── .gitignore
├── .dockerignore
├── .env / .env.example
└── .python-version

Pre-configured tooling

Tool	Purpose	Configured in
ruff	Lint + format (replaces black, isort, flake8, pylint)	pyproject.toml
mypy	Strict type checking	pyproject.toml
pytest	Test runner, src/ layout aware	pyproject.toml
debugpy	VS Code debugging	.vscode/launch.json
pre-commit	trailing-whitespace, end-of-file, check-yaml/toml/json/ast, merge-conflict, large-files, debug-statements, detect-private-key, ruff, codespell, bandit, gitleaks, mypy, pytest	.pre-commit-config.yaml
GitHub Actions CI	Runs pre-commit/action on push and PR	.github/workflows/ci.yml
Docker	App image + dev/prod compose stacks	docker/
Devcontainer	One-click VS Code container environment	.devcontainer/
PlantUML	Diagram sources + render targets	docs/diagrams/, Makefile

Pre-commit is the single source of truth for code-quality checks; CI just runs it. No version drift between your laptop and the build server.

Test coverage

make test-cov runs pytest with coverage and writes two reports:

• a terminal summary (term-missing) showing which lines are uncovered, and
• lcov.info at the project root, consumed by the Coverage Gutters VS Code extension (included in the recommended extensions).

After running it once, open any source file and run Coverage Gutters: Display Coverage (or click Watch in the status bar) to render covered/uncovered lines in the gutter. lcov.info is git-ignored.

Makefile targets

make help prints every target grouped by section. The full list:

Environment

Target	Description
make setup	Install uv (if missing), sync deps, register git hooks
make sync	uv sync --all-groups

Application

Target	Description
make dev	Run the project (uv run python -m <project>)

Quality

Target	Description
make lint	Ruff lint
make format	Ruff format (in place)
make format-check	Ruff format check (no changes)
make type-check	mypy strict
make test	pytest
make test-cov	pytest with coverage (terminal report + lcov.info for Coverage Gutters)
make check	Run the full pre-commit suite (canonical quality gate — same checks CI runs)

Docker (dev)

Target	Description
make docker-build	Build dev images
make docker-up	Start the dev stack (detached)
make docker-down	Stop and remove dev containers
make docker-logs	Tail dev stack logs
make docker-ps	List dev stack containers
make docker-restart	Restart the dev stack

Docker (prod)

Target	Description
make docker-up-prod	Start the prod stack (detached, with --build)
make docker-down-prod	Stop and remove prod containers
make docker-logs-prod	Tail prod stack logs

Release

Target	Description
make tag VERSION=x.y.z	Create annotated git tag
make release VERSION=x.y.z	Tag and push a release

Diagrams

Target	Description
make diagrams	Render PlantUML diagrams to PNG
make diagrams-svg	Render PlantUML diagrams to SVG
make diagrams-clean	Remove rendered diagram images

Cleanup

Target	Description
make clean	Remove build artifacts, caches, and .venv/

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Design Principles

• One source of truth, twice.
  • For tool configuration: pyproject.toml. No .ruff.toml, mypy.ini, setup.cfg, or tox.ini.
  • For code-quality checks: pre-commit. CI runs the exact same hooks — what passes locally passes in CI.
• src/ layout, always. Keeps tests honest by preventing accidental imports from the project root.
• Hatch dynamic versioning. __version__ in src/<project>/__init__.py is the only place a version number lives. pyproject.toml reads from it.
• Modern Python. Generated projects target Python 3.12+ and use modern type hints (PEP 695, type statements, | unions).
• No raw print. Generated code uses Rich for styled CLI output and structured logging.
• Devcontainer parity. The devcontainer's mounted workspace path matches the host directory name even when the host path contains hyphens — so VS Code's "Reopen in Container" just works.

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Contributing

git clone https://github.com/AymanKastali/DevStart.git
cd DevStart
make setup
make check

Issues and PRs welcome at https://github.com/AymanKastali/DevStart/issues.

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License

MIT