Skip to main content

Quick Start Guide

This guide will help you get started with Pace in just a few minutes.

Create Your First Configuration​

Let Pace automatically generate a configuration for your project:

pace init

This will detect your project type (Go, Node.js, Python, Rust) and create an optimized config.pace with appropriate tasks. See Project Templating for details.

Option 2: Manual Configuration​

Create a file named config.pace in your project root:

# Set the default task
default build

# Define a build task with alias
task build [b] {
    description "Build the application"
    command "go build -o bin/app main.go"
    inputs [**/*.go]
    outputs [bin/app]
    cache true
}

# Define a test task
task test [t] {
    description "Run tests"
    command "go test ./..."
}

Run Your First Task​

Run the default task (build):

pace run

Or run a specific task:

pace run test

List Available Tasks​

See all available tasks and their descriptions:

pace list

For a tree view showing dependencies:

pace list --tree

Add Dependencies​

Tasks can depend on other tasks and hooks:

task build {
    description "Build the application"
    command "go build -o bin/app main.go"
    requires [test]  # Run test hook before build
}

hook test {
    description "Run tests"
    command "go test ./..."
}

task deploy {
    description "Deploy to production"
    command "./scripts/deploy.sh"
    depends-on [build]  # Ensure build completes before deploy
    requires [test]     # Run test before deploy
}

Now when you run pace run deploy, it will automatically run: test → build → deploy

Use Variables​

Define reusable values:

# Define variables
var output = "bin/myapp"
var version = "1.0.0"

task build {
    command "go build -ldflags '-X main.Version=${version}' -o ${output} main.go"
}

Watch for Changes​

Automatically re-run tasks when files change:

pace watch build

This will monitor all files matching the task's inputs patterns and re-execute when changes are detected.

Add Task Aliases​

Create shortcuts using inline syntax:

task build [b] {
    description "Build application"
    command "go build -o bin/app main.go"
}

task test [t] {
    description "Run tests"
    command "go test ./..."
}

task deploy [d] {
    description "Deploy to production"
    command "./scripts/deploy.sh"
}

Or use standalone alias statements:

alias b build
alias t test
alias d deploy

Now you can run:

pace run b    # same as: pace run build
pace run t    # same as: pace run test

Common Workflows​

Development Workflow​

default dev

task dev [d] {
    description "Start development server"
    command "go run main.go"
    requires [build]
}

task build [b] {
    description "Build the project"
    command "go build -o bin/app main.go"
    inputs [**/*.go]
    cache true
}

task test [t] {
    description "Run tests"
    command "go test -v ./..."
}

Build and Test Pipeline​

default all

task all {
    description "Run full pipeline"
    depends-on [lint, test, build]
}

task lint [l] {
    description "Run linter"
    command "golangci-lint run"
}

task test [t] {
    description "Run tests"
    command "go test ./..."
}

task build [b] {
    description "Build application"
    command "go build -o bin/app main.go"
    cache true
}

Next Steps​