Experimental CLI

Note: We have an experimental CLI that will attempt to install Byline into an existing TanStack Start application. This has only been tested against up-to-date TanStack Start sites created with the Nitro (agnostic adapter). You can install TanStack Start with:

npx @tanstack/cli@latest create

#or

pnpm dlx @tanstack/cli@latest create

Then be sure to select the Nitro (agnostic) adapter.

◆  Select deployment adapter:
│  ○ None
│  ○ Cloudflare
│  ○ Netlify
│  ● Nitro (agnostic)
│  ○ Railway
└

Once your TanStack Start application is ready you can initialize a Byline installation with:

npx @byline/cli@latest init

# or

pnpm dlx @byline/cli@latest init

NOTE: If you use pnpm - installing dependencies may bail out asking you to pnpm approve-builds You can stop the cli@latest init - approve builds, and then re-run pnpm dlx @byline/cli@latest init and it will pick up where it left off. You may need to do this more than once.

At a minimum - for pnpm >= 11 - you'll need a pnpm-workspace.yaml file in the root of your project that looks something like this:

minimumReleaseAge: 1440
allowBuilds:
  "@google/genai": true
  "@parcel/watcher": true
  protobufjs: true
  sharp: true

If there are any issues, you can follow the example application in the Byline CMS main repo under apps/webapp.

NOTE: For AI-assisted editing, you'll need to add your API keys as shown in apps/webapp/.env.local.example

IMPORTANT: The core Byline routes will be placed under a pathless route at routes/_byline, with its own route.tsx template. To prevent your front-end TanStack Start application's styling from 'leaking' into the Byline dashboard, you'll need to create or move your top-most layout route into its own pathless layout route - for example, under routes/_fontend or routes/_public - with any styling, headers, footers etc., that might have been in __root.tsx - moved into the route.tsx layout file inside your frontend pathless layout route.

See the TanStack Router docs for File-Based Routing  and Virtual File Routes  for more information.

NOTE: If you have manually configured Byline by copying code from the example application in the repo (byline directories, .env, start, server, __root.tsx, and vite.config.ts settings), and only want to provision the database and seed the super-admin and example docs in the new application, use byline setup instead of byline init:

npx @byline/cli@latest setup

# or

pnpm dlx @byline/cli@latest setup

setup runs only the database-provisioning and seed phases (db → db-init → seed-admin → seed-docs) — it does not touch project files. Useful flag examples:

# Provision the DB and seed both the super-admin and example docs (default)
byline setup

# Provision the DB and seed the super-admin only
byline setup --no-seed-docs

# Provision the DB and seed example docs only
byline setup --no-seed-admin

# Provision the DB without running either seed
byline setup --no-seed-admin --no-seed-docs

# Destructive: drop and recreate the database (requires both flags)
byline setup --reset --i-mean-it

# Re-run every phase even if recorded as complete (non-destructive on its own —
# migrations re-apply as no-ops, seeds are idempotent)
byline setup --force

# Full nuke-and-pave: drop and recreate the database, then re-run every phase
byline setup --force --reset --i-mean-it

By default setup consults .byline-install.json and skips phases already recorded as complete. --force bypasses that and re-runs each phase against fresh state — useful after a manual DB reset, when you want to re-seed, or to re-verify a setup is healthy. A confirmation prompt fires before either of the --force flows runs (skippable with -y); the destructive --reset flow has its own confirm inside db-init unless --i-mean-it is also passed.

Before running any phase, setup performs a quick pre-flight: it bails if the core @byline/* packages aren't installed in your app's package.json, bails if .env or .env.local is missing, and warns-and-confirms if .env or .env.local is present but missing keys Byline expects (some keys may legitimately be supplied via shell env). For new TanStack Start apps that need the full scaffold, use byline init instead.