> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hookfish.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# CLI

> Scaffold, serve, inspect, and migrate Hookfish projects from the command line.

The `hookfish` package provides the project initializer, packaged dashboard,
MCP inspector, and local migration command. Run it through your package manager
without a global installation.

## Scaffold a project

```bash theme={null}
pnpm dlx hookfish init my-broker --backend node
```

| Option                | Description                                        |
| --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| `--backend <backend>` | `node`, `bun`, `docker`, `vercel`, or `cloudflare` |
| `--no-install`        | Create files without installing dependencies       |

The default backend is `node`. The target directory must be empty, and its name
must be a lowercase npm-compatible name.

## Serve the dashboard

```bash theme={null}
pnpm dlx hookfish serve --backend-url http://127.0.0.1:8787
```

`hookfish dev` is an alias. The command serves the packaged static dashboard
and proxies `/api` to the backend so browser requests remain same-origin.

| Option                | Environment alternative |
| --------------------- | ----------------------- |
| `--backend-url <url>` | `HOOKFISH_BACKEND_URL`  |
| `--no-open`           | None                    |

Generated projects already combine this command with their runtime-native
development server under `pnpm dev`.

## Run the MCP inspector

```bash theme={null}
pnpm dlx hookfish inspect
```

`hookfish inspector` is an alias. Set `INSPECTOR_PORT` to override port `3000`.
See [MCP inspector](/operations/inspector) for storage and authentication
behavior.

## Run local migrations

```bash theme={null}
PGLITE_DATA_DIR=data/hookfish pnpm dlx hookfish migrate
```

This command applies bundled migrations to the selected local PGlite directory.
Generated projects already apply PGlite migrations lazily on first use, so an
explicit local migration is normally unnecessary.

For production PostgreSQL, call `migrateDatabase` from a trusted deployment job
as described in [Databases and migrations](/operations/databases). Experimental
Durable Object databases apply their SQLite schema when each object starts.