Command-Line Interface (CLI)

Zhiva comes with a powerful CLI tool named zhiva to help you manage your development workflow, from installation to execution.

Main Commands

Here are the main commands available:

Command	Alias(es)	Description
`start`	`run`, `startup`, `o`, `r`	Start a Zhiva application.
`install`	`i`, `add`	Install an application from a GitHub repository.
`uninstall`	`rm`, `remove`	Uninstall an installed application.
`list`	`l`, `ls`	List installed applications.
`open`	`link`	Open a URL in a new Zhiva window.
`self`	`update-self`, `self-update`	Update the `zhiva` CLI and native engine.
`update`	`u`, `up`	Update all installed Zhiva applications.
`guess`	`find`	Find an application by its name using fuzzy search.
`help`	`h`	Show the help message.

`start`

Starts a Zhiva application.

zhiva start <app-name>

The <app-name> is always based on its GitHub repository path in the format user/repo. However, as a shortcut for the primary developer's apps (wxn0brP), you can omit the username.

Examples:

# Start an app from another user
zhiva start some-user/their-cool-app

# Start one of the primary developer's apps (shortcut)
zhiva start Zhiva-store-app

The start command also accepts options for controlling updates: - -e, --engine <mode>: Controls the update check for the native engine (0: auto, 1: skip, 2: force). - -d, --deps <mode>: Controls the update check for dependencies (0: auto, 1: skip, 2: force).

`install`

Installs an application from a GitHub repository.

zhiva install <app-name-or-repo>

Like the start command, the app name is based on the user/repo path.

Examples:

# Install an app from another user
zhiva install some-user/their-cool-app

# Install an app from the primary developer (wxn0brP)
# This is equivalent to 'zhiva install wxn0brP/Zhiva-store-app'
zhiva install Zhiva-store-app

The install command clones the repository into ~/.zhiva/apps, installs its dependencies using bun install, runs the build script if defined in package.json, and can create desktop shortcuts.

`uninstall`

Removes a previously installed application.

zhiva uninstall <app-name>

`list`

Lists all applications installed on your system.

zhiva list

`update`

Updates all installed Zhiva applications by pulling the latest changes from their respective Git repositories.

zhiva update

`self`

Updates the Zhiva framework itself, including the zhiva CLI and the shared native engine.

zhiva self