DevUtils CLI

Work in Progress -- This project is under active development and has not been fully tested in real-world environments. Commands may change, break, or behave unexpectedly. Use at your own risk. The stable, production-ready release will ship as v1.0. Until then, versions in the 0.x range should be considered pre-release.

A config-driven CLI toolkit for bootstrapping and managing development environments across any machine.

DevUtils replaces scattered dotfiles, setup scripts, and manual configuration with a single dev command. You tell it what you need, and it handles the rest -- whether you're setting up a new laptop, syncing git identities across machines, or managing tool installations.

Installation

npm install -g @fredlackey/devutils

Requires Node.js 18 or later.

Quick Start

Once installed, the dev command is available globally:

dev help# Show all available services and commands
dev version # Print the current version
dev config init # Walk through first-time setup
dev status # Check the health of your environment
dev ignore node # Add Node.js patterns to .gitignore
dev tools list # See what tools are installed
dev identity list # List your configured git identities
dev util list # Browse available utility functions

Command Reference

DevUtils organizes commands by service. The general pattern is:

dev <service> <method> [arguments] [flags]

Services

config -- User configuration and onboarding

Method	Description
init	Run first-time setup and create config files
show	Display the current configuration
get	Read a specific config value
set	Update a specific config value
reset	Reset configuration to defaults
export	Export config to a file
import	Import config from a file

machine -- Machine profiles and detection

Method	Description
detect	Auto-detect the current machine
show	Show the active machine profile
set	Set a machine profile value
list	List all known machine profiles

identity -- Git identities, SSH keys, GPG signing

Method	Description
add	Register a new git identity
remove	Remove a registered identity
list	List all identities
show	Show details for a specific identity
link	Link an identity to a folder or repo
unlink	Remove a folder/repo identity link
sync	Sync identity configs to git and SSH

tools -- Tool installation and management

Method	Description
install	Install a tool using the platform's package manager
check	Check if a tool is installed
list	List available or installed tools
search	Search for tools by name

ignore -- .gitignore pattern management

Method	Description
add	Add technology patterns to .gitignore
remove	Remove a technology's patterns
list	List available technologies
show	Show patterns for a specific technology

util -- Utility functions

Method	Description
add	Register a custom utility
remove	Unregister a utility
list	List all available utilities
show	Show details for a specific utility
run	Execute a utility

alias -- Shorthand bin entries

Method	Description
add	Create a new alias
remove	Delete an alias
list	List all registered aliases
sync	Regenerate alias wrapper scripts

auth -- OAuth and credential management

Method	Description
login	Authenticate with a service
logout	Revoke credentials for a service
list	List authenticated services
status	Show current auth status
refresh	Refresh an expired token

api -- API plugin system

Method	Description
list	List installed API plugins
enable	Enable a plugin
disable	Disable a plugin
update	Update a plugin to latest version

ai -- AI coding assistant launcher

Method	Description
launch	Start an AI coding session
resume	Resume a previous session
list	List configured AI tools
sessions	List past sessions
show	Show details for a session or AI tool
set	Update AI tool settings

search -- Markdown search

Method	Description
query	Run a general search
keyword	Search by keyword
semantic	Search by meaning (requires AI plugin)
get	Retrieve a specific search result
collections	List indexed collections
index	Build or rebuild the search index
status	Show indexing status

Top-Level Commands

These commands don't belong to a service and are called directly:

Command	Description
status	Overall health check
version	Show current version
help	Show the help message
schema	Introspect available commands
update	Update DevUtils to latest version

Global Flags

These flags work with any command:

Flag	Description
--format <json|table|yaml|csv>	Set the output format
--dry-run	Show what would happen without doing it
--verbose	Increase output detail
--quiet	Suppress non-essential output
--json <data>	Pass structured input as JSON
--help, -h	Show help
--version, -v	Show version

API Plugin System

DevUtils doesn't bundle API integrations directly. Instead, API wrappers are installed as separate plugin packages and managed through the dev api service.

Plugins live in ~/.devutils/plugins/ and are registered in ~/.devutils/plugins.json. Each plugin is a standard npm package that exports a defined interface. This keeps the core CLI small and lets you add only the integrations you actually use.

dev api list # See what's installed
dev api enable<plugin># Enable a plugin
dev api disable <plugin># Disable a plugin
dev api update <plugin># Update to latest version

Configuration

All user data lives in ~/.devutils/, created during dev config init:

• config.json -- User preferences, profile name, backup location
• aliases.json -- Registered alias mappings
• ai.json -- AI tool configurations
• plugins.json -- Installed API plugin registry
• machines/ -- Machine profiles
• auth/ -- OAuth tokens and API credentials
• plugins/ -- Installed API plugin packages
• utils/ -- User-added custom utilities
• bin/ -- Generated alias wrapper scripts (added to PATH)
• cache/ -- Temporary data

Supported Platforms

Platform	Package Manager
macOS	Homebrew
Ubuntu	APT, Snap
Raspberry Pi OS	APT, Snap
Amazon Linux	DNF, YUM
Windows	Chocolatey, winget
Git Bash	Manual / Portable

Current Status

DevUtils is in pre-release (0.1.x). The core framework, command routing, and service structure are in place. Basic smoke tests pass on Ubuntu 24.04 in Docker, but deeper integration testing -- real Git operations, SSH key workflows, GitHub auth, tool installation, and interactive prompts -- has not been completed yet.

What's working:

• Command routing and service discovery across all 11 services
• Config init, show, get, set, reset, file-based export/import
• Machine detection and profile management
• Gitignore pattern management (add, remove, list, show)
• Tool check, list, search, and dry-run install
• Identity CRUD (add, list, show, remove)
• Alias management and wrapper generation
• AI tool configuration
• Schema introspection
• Platform detection (macOS, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS, Amazon Linux, Windows, Git Bash)

What still needs real-world testing:

• SSH key generation and GitHub integration
• Git identity sync to actual repositories
• Config backup/restore via remote Git repo
• OAuth login flows
• Tool installation on each supported platform
• API plugin installation and lifecycle
• AI session launch and resume
• QMD search indexing and queries

Patch versions (0.1.1, 0.1.2, etc.) will ship as issues are found and fixed during hands-on use. Minor version bumps (0.2.0) are reserved for breaking changes. The first stable release will be v1.0.0.

Contact

Fred Lackey

• Email: fred.lackey@gmail.com
• Website: fredlackey.com
• GitHub: @FredLackey

License

Apache-2.0