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Anvil Cloud / Getting started

Quickstart

Use this flow to create an Anvil Cell and inspect its output before deployment.

Anvil Cloud is v0 and the packages are currently private inside the anvil-cloud workspace. The stable command contract is anvil ...; from a local checkout you can run the CLI package directly while packaging settles.

1) Prepare the checkout

From anvil-cloud:

pnpm install --ignore-scripts
pnpm build

If dependencies are already installed, pnpm build is enough to refresh the package output used by the CLI.

2) Create a Cell

With a linked or installed anvil binary:

anvil new notes
cd notes

From the workspace during v0 development:

node packages/cli/dist/index.js new notes
cd notes

The scaffold creates:

notes/
  AGENTS.md
  anvil.json
  package.json
  tsconfig.json
  src/
    cell.server.ts
    cell.client.tsx

The generated server defines a todos table, a listTodos query, an addTodo mutation, and capabilities.database.

3) Check before build

anvil check --json

In local workspace development, when the Cell lives directly under the repo root:

node ../packages/cli/dist/index.js check --json

check validates:

  • Cell config
  • import policy
  • direct process.env access
  • undeclared global fetch
  • scheduled jobs without capabilities.scheduledJobs
  • handler capability use
  • TypeScript typecheck
  • manifest extraction readiness

Fix check failures before trying to run or deploy.

4) Build artifacts

anvil build --json

The builder writes:

.anvil/
  dist/
    client/
      index.html
      assets/
    server/
      index.mjs
    manifest.json
    build-meta.json
  generated/
    api.d.ts
    client.ts

The manifest is the key handoff to local runtime and deployment adapters.

5) Run locally

anvil dev

Default local URLs:

Surface URL
Runtime http://localhost:8787
Client http://localhost:5173

Useful local routes:

GET  /_anvil/health
GET  /_anvil/manifest
GET  /_anvil/inspect
POST /_anvil/query/:name
POST /_anvil/mutation/:name
ANY  /api/*

For automation:

anvil dev --json
anvil dev --agent --json

Agent mode emits JSONL events and avoids spinners, terminal control codes, and unstable prose.

6) Inspect local state

anvil inspect --local --json
anvil logs --local --json
anvil db list --local --json
anvil db dump todos --local --json

Local state is stored under .anvil/local:

.anvil/local/
  auth.json
  dev.db
  events.json
  files/
  jobs.json
  logs.ndjson

7) Preview deployment

anvil deploy --preview --json

Without AWS provisioning configuration, the preview adapter returns a stable deployment plan, CloudFormation template, and deploy artifact summary rather than mutating an AWS account.

To provision preview infrastructure, configure the AWS adapter environment described in AWS preview.

Read next

Anvil CloudExamples