Console

• Introduction
• Running commands
• Writing a command
  • A closure
  • A class
• Arguments and options
• Output
• Built-in commands
• Running a command on a schedule

Introduction

cua is your application's command line. It runs the server, the migrations and the queue, and it runs commands of your own: an import, a cleanup, a one-off fix. A command has the whole application behind it, the container and your services included, without a web request.

Running commands

php cua                      # lists every command
php cua route:list           # runs one
php cua start --help         # describes one without running it; -h does the same
php cua help start           # so does this

Writing a command

A closure

For a few lines, declare it in routes/console.php:

// routes/console.php
use Crab\Command;
use Crab\Contracts\Console\Input;
use Crab\Contracts\Console\Output;

Command::add('hello:say', static function (Input $input, Output $output): int {
    $output->line('Hello, ' . $input->argument(0, 'world') . '!');

    return 0;
}, 'Say hello: php cua hello:say [name]');

php cua hello:say Ada
# Hello, Ada!

The third argument is the description shown in the command list.

A class

Use a class when the command needs services. php cua make:command PruneUsers writes one in app/Console/ and registers it in routes/console.php as user:prune; --command= names it otherwise. The container makes it when its description is first needed or when it runs, so listing commands or asking for help can construct it:

// app/Console/PruneUsers.php
namespace App\Console;

use Crab\Contracts\Clock\Clock;
use Crab\Contracts\Console\Command;
use Crab\Contracts\Console\Input;
use Crab\Contracts\Console\Output;
use Crab\Contracts\Database\Database;

final readonly class PruneUsers implements Command
{
    public function __construct(private Database $db, private Clock $clock)
    {
    }

    public function description(): string
    {
        return <<<'TEXT'
            Delete users who never confirmed their email
            Options:
              --days=30    How old an unconfirmed account must be
              --dry-run    Count them and delete nothing
            TEXT;
    }

    public function handle(Input $input, Output $output): int
    {
        $days = $input->option('days', '30');
        if ($days === true) {
            throw new \InvalidArgumentException('--days needs a value; use --days=30.');
        }
        $now = $this->clock->now();
        $maximum = intdiv(PHP_INT_MAX, 86400);
        if (
            preg_match('/^(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$/D', $days) !== 1
            || filter_var($days, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, ['options' => ['min_range' => 0, 'max_range' => $maximum]]) === false
        ) {
            throw new \InvalidArgumentException('--days must be a nonnegative whole number that fits a timestamp; use --days=30.');
        }
        $seconds = (int) $days * 86400;
        if ($now->getTimestamp() < PHP_INT_MIN + $seconds) {
            throw new \InvalidArgumentException('--days is too large for this cutoff; use --days=30.');
        }
        $before = $now->setTimestamp($now->getTimestamp() - $seconds)->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        $query = $this->db->table('users')->whereNull('confirmed_at')->where('created_at', '<', $before);

        if ($input->flag('dry-run')) {
            $output->line($query->count() . ' users would be deleted.');

            return 0;
        }

        $output->line($query->delete() . ' users deleted.');

        return 0;
    }
}

// routes/console.php
Command::add('user:prune', PruneUsers::class);

The first line of description() is shown in the command list, and all of it by --help. handle() returns the exit status: 0 for success, anything else for failure. An exception is printed and the status is 1.

A name starts with a lower-case letter or digit and contains only lower-case letters, digits, :, _ and -; list and help are reserved. Use area:action, as in user:prune, with the area in the singular. The framework's own follow it: route:list, schedule:list, queue:work, cache:clear. Name a command that lists things area:list.

Arguments and options

What follows the command's name reaches it as the input. Take a command declared as:

Command::add('user:import', ImportUsers::class);

php cua user:import users.csv --batch=500 --force -v

$input->argument(0);                 // "users.csv"
$input->argument(1, 'default');      // "default": there is no second argument
$input->arguments();                 // ["users.csv"]

$input->option('batch');             // "500"
$input->option('batch', '100');      // with a default
$input->flag('force');               // true
$input->flag('v');                   // true: each letter of -abc is a flag
$input->options();                   // ["batch" => "500", "force" => true, "v" => true]

Before importing, check the batch size and source file:

$batch = $input->option('batch', '100');
if (
    !is_string($batch) || preg_match('/^[1-9][0-9]*$/D', $batch) !== 1
    || filter_var($batch, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, ['options' => ['min_range' => 1]]) === false
) {
    throw new \InvalidArgumentException('--batch must be a positive whole number; use --batch=500.');
}
$file = $input->argument(0);
if ($file === null || str_contains($file, "\0") || str_contains($file, '://') || !is_file($file) || !is_readable($file)) {
    throw new \InvalidArgumentException('Give a readable local CSV file: user:import users.csv --batch=500.');
}
$batch = (int) $batch;

• An option's value is text; write --batch=500, since --batch 500 makes batch a flag and 500 an argument. Check every value-taking option for true first and name a missing value before checking other option values or positional arguments. Then validate each entire value before casting or doing any work. Check numeric form and range, configured names, and usable paths/classes. For a positive integer such as batch, require decimal digits and FILTER_VALIDATE_INT with ['options' => ['min_range' => 1]]; reject empty, fractional, trailing-text and overflowing values. user:prune above also bounds its timestamp arithmetic and uses the injected clock; --days=0 deliberately includes every older unconfirmed account.
• flag() is true when the option is present and not false, 0, no or an empty value, so --force=false and --force= switch it off.
• Everything after -- is an argument, even when it starts with a dash.
• --help and -h are taken by the console; do not use h for an option of your own.

Output

$output->line('Done.');                          // a line on standard output
$output->write('Working');                       // without the line break
$output->error('The file does not exist.');      // a line on standard error
$output->table([
    ['Id', 'Email'],
    ['1', 'ada@example.com'],
    ['2', 'grace@example.com'],
]);                                              // columns padded to their widest cell

Print results with line() and problems with error(), so that a script can pipe one and still see the other.

Built-in commands

status and stop run even when the application cannot be loaded, as described in When the new code does not load; --pid points them at another server's process id file.

stop and the stop phase of restart use the running server's remaining allowance, even after its configuration changes. --timeout overrides the graceful wait. To cut in-flight requests and end every server process immediately, use:

php cua stop --force

Success means the background server, including registered programs, has ended; a keeper that does not lead its own session is ended alone, with a non-zero result saying its workers may remain and must be ended by whatever started it. Foreground start writes no background PID file: stop its terminal job or process manager. See Deployment for drain limits.

The core plugins add their commands automatically; an optional plugin, such as QueuePlugin or TokenAuthPlugin, adds its commands when you list it:

Describing the application

php cua describe prints the application for a coding agent to read instead of its files: its routes with what each takes, the middleware around every request, the commands, the scheduled tasks, the event listeners, the servers start can run, the databases with their migration files, and every setting.

php cua describe                  # everything, as text
php cua describe routes commands  # some sections
php cua describe --json           # the same as JSON

Before anything else, under the application's name, it lists what start would refuse: settings that do not fit, and services the code names that the container cannot make. A CI step can run php cua describe app and fail the build on a problem: line. See Services that cannot be made.

The text is one thing to a line, with each route's input in TypeScript notation and its limits by JSON Schema's names. Agents read it as well as JSON or TOML, in fewer tokens:

routes
  POST /orders -> App\Actions\PlaceOrder via Crab\Auth\TokenAuth
    body { lines: Array<{ productId: int; quantity?: int | null (minimum=1, maximum=20, default=1) }> (minItems=1, maxItems=20) }
    user: App\User
  GET /products/{id} -> App\Actions\ShowProduct
    {id}: int

A field written name?: may be left out, and | null may be null. Limits are inclusive and apply to what they follow: (minItems=1, maxItems=20) after Array<...> is how many lines there may be. A route that takes nothing says takes nothing, and one whose action is a PSR-15 handler of its own says input not declared. A command shows the first line of its description; php cua <command> --help has the rest.

With --json, a route's input is JSON Schema: parameters for those of its pattern, query for the fields of its query string and body for those of its body, and user for the logged-in user, with whether one is required. Rules are given in JSON Schema's words, #[Range(min: 1)] as "minimum": 1 and #[Email] as "format": "email"; a rule of your own is named under x-rules.

Settings whose names end in password, secret, token, private or key are printed as (hidden) when they are set. Any other value is printed as it is, so a secret kept under another name is printed too.

Running a command on a schedule

Do not add a cron entry per command. Declare it on the schedule and keep one php cua schedule:work running:

$schedule->command('user:prune', '--days=30')->daily('03:00');

See Task scheduling.