Note
Source lives on Codeberg. Issues and PRs welcome here on GitHub!
Production-grade Go CLI/Daemon framework with atomic state and self-updating superpowers.
Sprout handles the entire lifecycle of a CLI application: compiling → packaging → publishing → installing → running (as a daemon) → and safely updating itself. It's the infrastructure you'd spend months building from scratch, battle-tested and ready to fork.
Built with love and unhealthy amounts of caffeine. Sprout is truly a near zero-compromise solution for CLI/Daemon applications. Check this shit out:
- How do I update a running binary without corrupting state?: PID-tracked migration guards with cross-process file locking ensure safe, atomic updates even with multiple instances running.
- How do multiple CLI instances share state with a background daemon?: LMDB provides ACID-compliant, multi-process concurrent access that doubles as language-agnostic IPC.
- How do I release without manual intervention?: Changelog-driven CI/CD. Push a version entry, and Forgejo Actions handles the rest.
- How do I update a systemd service without SSH access?: Detached grandchild process spawns a shell script that stops the service, downloads the new binary, and restarts it, all triggered from a button in the web UI or cli command.
- How do I make my frontend look pretty?: TailwindCSS + DaisyUI, all standalone (no npm needed) with compile time cache busting... You'll be the belle of the ball.
| Edit Project | Create Release | Publish | Install | Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Develop your app | Add a changelog entry | CI builds & uploads | One-liner install | Click-to-update in browser |
Sprout is a textbook example of unified dependency injection: the App struct holds all services (DB, Logger, Config, Server) and manages resource cleanup via a stack. For the full deep-dive, see ARCHITECTURE.md.
graph TD
subgraph "User Space"
CLI[CLI Instances]
WebUI[Web UI / Browser]
end
subgraph "System Space"
Daemon[Daemon Service]
end
LMDB[(LMDB Database)]
CLI -->|Read/Write| LMDB
Daemon -->|Read/Write| LMDB
CLI -.->|Control| Daemon
WebUI <-->|HTTP| Daemon
- Complexity is the enemy. If it's hard to understand, it will break, be hard to maintain, hard to debug, hard to update, etc.
- Dependencies should earn their keep. Every external package is a liability. I try to only use them when they solve a non-trivial problem.
- Tackle the hard parts first. Can't say this repo doesn't do that lmao.
- Write for humans. Code is read more than it's written. In 6 months, you'll be the uninformed reader of your own code. Be kind to future you.
This repo delivers a full CLI/Daemon lifecycle in under 3k LOC with only ~5 direct dependencies. The ones that usually require npm (tailwindcss, daisyui) are automatically installed via their standalone methods by the build script, no npm required. All your users need is Linux or Windows, and a 64 bit machine. You only also need Go for development.
| Platform | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Linux (amd64) | Production | Requires systemd for daemon functionality. |
| Windows (WSL) | Experimental | Fully functional via WSL, but the installation flow is experimental. |
| macOS/BSD | Unsupported | Lacks systemd, which is core to the daemon architecture. |
- Use this Template - Fork, configure, and build your own app
- Installation Guide - Template for end-user install docs
You're building a CLI tool or system service and you want:
- Users to install and update with zero friction
- A daemon that runs reliably under systemd
- Shared state that won't corrupt across processes
- A production-grade release pipeline that fits in two ~300 line shell scripts
You're comfortable with Go, Linux, and reading source code when needed.
Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE.md for details.
🩵 xoxo :3 <- that last bit is a cat, his name is sebastian and he is ultra fancy. Like, i'm not kidding, more than you initially imagined while reading that. Pinky up, drinks tea... you have no idea. Crazy.