AXL

AXL is the single muscle-memory for every repo you touch. It inspects the current tree, figures out the stack (Android, Bun, Rust, Flutter, Bazel, …), and maps universal verbs like dev, build, test, reset, or logs to the right stack-specific commands. Instead of memorising 20 rituals, you just run:

axl dev      # start the dev server / run target
axl build    # produce release artifacts
axl test     # execute the stack's tests
axl clean    # remove build artifacts
axl reset    # wipe caches + reinstall deps
axl open     # open the project in the OS UI
axl logs     # tail relevant logs
axl install  # install the project locally

AXL is ideal for engineers juggling dozens of repositories and switching between wildly different toolchains all day. It removes cognitive overhead instead of adding yet another bespoke CLI to learn.

Features

• Stack auto-detection — looks for marker files such as bun.lock, package.json, gradlew, Cargo.toml, go.mod, Gemfile, pom.xml, composer.json, mix.exs, *.csproj, Package.swift, pubspec.yaml, BUILD.bazel, pyproject.toml, or falls back to .git.
• Zero-config defaults — each stack ships with sensible commands for all verbs (e.g. Bun → bun run dev, Rust → cargo run, Go → go run .). Works out-of-the-box.
• Optional overrides — drop an axl.toml in any repo to redefine verbs, set env vars, enforce tool requirements, or change the detected stack.
• Unified helper verbs — beyond the core runtime verbs you also get axl info, axl detect, axl doctor, axl init, axl recent, axl resume, axl switch, and axl version.
• Workspace registry — remembers the last projects you touched, which verb you ran, and when. Stored in ~/.config/axl/projects.json, enabling axl recent, axl resume, and axl switch.
• Safety checks — every command can declare required tools (e.g. bun, cargo, adb, go, dotnet). AXL verifies they exist before spawning anything.

Installation

cargo install --path .

(Or build however you prefer; it’s a single Rust binary.)

Usage

From any repository:

axl dev      # start the dev server / run target
axl build    # produce release artifacts
axl test     # execute the stack's tests
axl clean    # remove build artifacts
axl reset    # wipe caches + reinstall deps
axl open     # open the project in the OS UI
axl logs     # tail relevant logs
axl install  # install the project locally

Project helpers

Workspace helpers

Configuration (axl.toml)

AXL doesn’t need configuration, but when you want full control you can create an axl.toml in the project root:

[project]
name = "polygone"
stack = "bun"

[dev]
cmd = "bun run dev"
requires = ["bun", "node"]

[test]
cmd = "bun run test"

[reset]
cmd = "rm -rf node_modules bun.lock && bun install"

Each verb section can define:

• cmd (string): the exact command to run.
• requires (array): binaries that must exist in $PATH.
• env (table): environment variables to inject when running.

If [project] supplies stack, it overrides detection.

Detection table (built-in markers)

If axl.toml exists, its stack value wins.

Development

cargo fmt
cargo check
cargo run -- dev      # or any other verb

AXL sets AXL_VERB and AXL_ROOT when spawning commands so scripts can inspect the context if needed.

License

MIT