Quick Start with Spring Boot CLI
🚀 Quick Start with Spring Boot CLI
Want to supercharge your Spring Boot development? The Spring Boot CLI is your command-line companion for scaffolding projects in seconds!
📦 Installation
First things first - grab the latest CLI using the instructions from the Spring Boot website - https://docs.spring.io/spring-boot/installing.html#getting-started.installing.cli
🎯 What Can It Do?
The CLI’s super power is generating new Spring Boot projects. Let's focus on project generation - it's a game-changer for quick starts!
🛠️ Command Reference
Get familiar with the basic commands. The real magic happens with the init command, which lets you customize everything about your new project.
> spring help init
spring init - Initialize a new project using Spring Initializr (start.spring.io)
usage: spring init [options] [location]
Option Description
------ -----------
-a, --artifact-id <String> Project coordinates; infer archive name (for
example 'test')
-b, --boot-version <String> Spring Boot version (for example '1.2.0.RELEASE')
--build <String> Build system to use (for example 'maven' or
'gradle') (default: gradle)
-d, --dependencies <String> Comma-separated list of dependency identifiers to
include in the generated project
--description <String> Project description
-f, --force Force overwrite of existing files
--format <String> Format of the generated content (for example
'build' for a build file, 'project' for a
project archive) (default: project)
-g, --group-id <String> Project coordinates (for example 'org.test')
-j, --java-version <String> Language level (for example '1.8')
-l, --language <String> Programming language (for example 'java')
--list List the capabilities of the service. Use it to
discover the dependencies and the types that are
available
-n, --name <String> Project name; infer application name
-p, --packaging <String> Project packaging (for example 'jar')
--package-name <String> Package name
-t, --type <String> Project type. Not normally needed if you use --
build and/or --format. Check the capabilities of
the service (--list) for more details
--target <String> URL of the service to use (default: https://start.
spring.io)
-v, --version <String> Project version (for example '0.0.1-SNAPSHOT')
-x, --extract Extract the project archive. Inferred if a
location is specified without an extension
examples:
To list all the capabilities of the service:
$ spring init --list
To creates a default project:
$ spring init
To create a web my-app.zip:
$ spring init -d=web my-app.zip
To create a web/data-jpa gradle project unpacked:
$ spring init -d=web,jpa --build=gradle my-dir
🧩 Dependencies Made Easy
Need to know what dependencies are available? Just use the --list argument to see all your options.
> spring init --list
. ____ _ __ _ _
/\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
\\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| | ) ) ) )
' |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
=========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
:: Service capabilities :: https://start.spring.io
Supported dependencies
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Id | Description | Required version |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| activemq | Spring JMS support with Apache ActiveMQ 'Classic'. | |
| | | |
| actuator | Supports built in (or custom) endpoints that let you monitor | |
| | and manage your application - such as application health, | |
| | metrics, sessions, etc. | |
🔥 Project Generation
Here's where the magic happens - let's bring all these commands together to create a complete web project in seconds:
> spring init \
--type=maven-project \
--java=21 \
--group-id="com.robintegg" \
--artifact-id="example-webapp" \
--description="Example webapp created from the command line" \
--name="ExampleWebapp" \
--package-name="com.robintegg.webapp" \
--dependencies=web,jdbc,h2,lombok \
--extract
Using service at https://start.spring.io
Project extracted to '/Users/robintegg/spring-boot-cli'
⚡ Power User Tips
Save time by creating aliases for your most-used project templates. Once set up, you can spin up new projects with a single command and jump straight into coding!
# spring cli commands
alias webapp-here="spring init --type=maven-project --java=21 --group-id='com.robintegg' --artifact-id='example-webapp' --description='Example webapp created from the command line' --name='ExampleWebapp' --package-name='com.robintegg.webapp' --dependencies=web,jdbc,h2,lombok --extract"
You can now make an alias for this command. For example with zsh , open your .zshrc and add the following.
Then you can use the alias and open in your IDE of choice.
> webapp-here
Using service at https://start.spring.io
Project extracted to '/Users/robintegg/spring-boot-cli'
> ls -al
total 72
drwxr-xr-x ... 320 11 Mar 09:30 .
drwxr-x---+ ... 1760 11 Mar 09:28 ..
-rw-r--r-- ... 38 11 Mar 09:30 .gitattributes
-rw-r--r-- ... 395 11 Mar 09:30 .gitignore
drwxr-xr-x ... 96 11 Mar 09:30 .mvn
-rw-r--r-- ... 1506 11 Mar 09:30 HELP.md
-rwxr-xr-x ... 10665 11 Mar 09:30 mvnw
-rw-r--r-- ... 6912 11 Mar 09:30 mvnw.cmd
-rw-r--r-- ... 2348 11 Mar 09:30 pom.xml
drwxr-xr-x ... 128 11 Mar 09:30 src
> idea .
Now, go build some great new web applications!