CLI

The Wails CLI has a number of commands that are used for managing your projects. All commands are run in the following way:

wails <command> <flags>

init

wails init is used for generating projects.

Example: wails init -n test -d mytestproject -g -ide vscode -q

This will generate a a project called "test" in the "mytestproject" directory, initialise git, generate vscode project files and do so silently.

More information on using IDEs with Wails can be found here.

Remote Templates

Remote templates (hosted on GitHub) are supported and can be installed by using the template's project URL.

Example: wails init -n test -t https://github.com/leaanthony/testtemplate[@v1.0.0]

A list of community maintained templates can be found here

:::warning Attention

The Wails project does not maintain, is not responsible nor liable for 3rd party templates!

If you are unsure about a template, inspect package.json and wails.json for what scripts are run and what packages are installed.

:::

build

wails build is used for compiling your project to a production-ready binary.

For a detailed description of the webview2 flag, please refer to the Windows Guide.

If you prefer to build using standard Go tooling, please consult the Manual Builds guide.

Example:

wails build -clean -o myproject.exe

:::info

On Mac, the application will be bundled with Info.plist, not Info.dev.plist.

:::

:::info UPX on Apple Silicon

There are issues with using UPX with Apple Silicon.

:::

:::info Set minimal version for MacOS

You can override default minimal version of macOS for your app by providing version via CGO_CFLAGS and CGO_LDFLAGS environment variables. e.g. CGO_CFLAGS=-mmacosx-version-min=10.15.0 CGO_LDFLAGS=-mmacosx-version-min=10.15.0 wails build

:::

:::info UPX on Windows

Some Antivirus vendors false positively mark upx compressed binaries as virus, see issue.

:::

Platforms

Supported platforms are:

doctor

wails doctor will run diagnostics to ensure that your system is ready for development.

Example:

Wails CLI v2.0.0-beta

Scanning system - Please wait (this may take a long time)...Done.

System
------
OS:             Windows 10 Pro
Version:        2009 (Build: 19043)
ID:             21H1
Go Version:     go1.18
Platform:       windows
Architecture:   amd64

Dependency      Package Name    Status          Version
----------      ------------    ------          -------
WebView2        N/A             Installed       93.0.961.52
npm             N/A             Installed       6.14.15
*upx            N/A             Installed       upx 3.96

* - Optional Dependency

Diagnosis
---------
Your system is ready for Wails development!

dev

wails dev is used to run your application in a "live development" mode. This means:

• The application's go.mod will be updated to use the same version of Wails as the CLI
• The application is compiled and run automatically
• A watcher is started and will trigger a rebuild of your dev app if it detects changes to your go files
• A webserver is started on http://localhost:34115 which serves your application (not just frontend) over http. This allows you to use your favourite browser development extensions
• All application assets are loaded from disk. If they are changed, the application will automatically reload (not rebuild). All connected browsers will also reload
• A JS module is generated that provides the following:
• JavaScript wrappers of your Go methods with autogenerated JSDoc, providing code hinting
• TypeScript versions of your Go structs, that can be constructed and passed to your go methods
• A second JS module is generated that provides a wrapper + TS declaration for the runtime
• On macOS, it will bundle the application into a .app file and run it. It will use a build/darwin/Info.dev.plist for development.

Example:

wails dev -assetdir ./frontend/dist -wailsjsdir ./frontend/src -browser

This command will do the following:

• Build the application and run it (more details here
• Generate the Wails JS modules in ./frontend/src
• Watch for updates to files in ./frontend/dist and reload on any change
• Open a browser and connect to the application

There is more information on using this feature with existing framework scripts here.

generate

template

Wails uses templates for project generation. The wails generate template command helps scaffold a template so that it may be used for generating projects.

For more details on creating templates, consult the Templates guide.

module

The wails generate module command allows you to manually generate the wailsjs directory for your application.

update

wails update will update the version of the Wails CLI.

version

wails version will simply output the current CLI version.