Bolt CLI is a modern, high-performance command-line tool designed to revolutionize the way you develop and build extensions for MIT App Inventor 2 and its various distributions (Kodular, Niotron, etc.).

Bolt CLI brings modern Android and JVM build practices to App Inventor extension development:

• ⚡ Lightning-Fast Builds: Optimized build pipelines with high-speed incremental compiler integration keep compile-to-packaged times under a few seconds.
• 📦 Maven-Style Dependency Management: Seamlessly declare remote dependencies using coordinates (e.g., groupId:artifactId:version) or point to local JAR/AAR packages inside your deps/ directory.
• ☕ Kotlin & Java Language Support: Write extensions in Java, Kotlin, or both simultaneously in the same project!
• ⚙️ Full AndroidManifest.xml Integration: Declare receivers, providers, services, activities, and metadata inside a custom AndroidManifest.xml in your src/ folder with shorthand class name expansion (e.g. .MyService expands to your package name).
• 🛠️ Advanced Optimization & Bytecode Stripping: Supports R8, ProGuard optimizations, desugaring, and custom ProGuard configurations.
• 🔄 Seamless Project Migration: Easily port legacy projects (Rush, Fast, extension-template, AI2 source projects) to modern Bolt CLI architecture with automatic pre-migration backup ZIP to guarantee no data loss.
• 🛠️ Desugaring & ProGuard Optimization: Fully supports Java 8+ features, including lambda expressions ()->, and allows shrinking/obfuscation with aggressive defaults (-optimizationpasses 5).
• 📄 Automatic Documentation: Bolt auto-generates a formatted Markdown specifications catalog (extension.txt) on every build inside your out/ directory.
• 🎛️ Dynamic Android Compile SDK: Supports target SDK configuration via android_sdk in bolt.yml. No more hardcoded SDK APIs!
• 🧩 Multi-Component Support: Bundle multiple @Extension components in a single .aix with segregated auto-generated documentation.
• 🎨 Red Drop-down Blocks: Use App Inventor's @Options annotation for type-safe parameter enums.
• 🧹 Zero Configuration Deannotation: Strip metadata annotations without needing to compress/shrink bytecode.
• 🌳 Project Directory Tree Visualizer: The bolt tree command displays a beautiful visual hierarchical representation of all files and folders in your project and automatically saves it as tree.txt at the project root.

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Bolt CLI version:

Bolt Language Selection

Bolt Project Created

Bolt Tree

Bolt Migrate

Bolt Build

Before installing Bolt CLI, ensure you have JDK 8 or above installed on your system.

To install to the default location ($HOME\.bolt):

iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TechHamara/bolt-cli/main/scripts/install/install.ps1 -useb | iex

Or specify a custom install directory:

iwr https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TechHamara/bolt-cli/main/scripts/install/install.ps1 -useb | iex -Args @{ InstallPath = 'C:\MyCustomPath\.bolt' }

The installer script respects the BOLT_HOME environment variable if set.

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TechHamara/bolt-cli/main/scripts/install/install-termux.sh -fsSL | bash

Check Documentation here

Let's create a simple extension:

1. Scaffold a new project:

   bolt create MyAwesomeExtension

   Bolt CLI will guide you interactively through the package name, programming language (Java or Kotlin), and target IDE (VSCode, IntelliJ/Android Studio, or both) configurations.

2. Navigate into the directory:

   cd MyAwesomeExtension

3. Compile the extension:

   bolt build

4. Retrieve the bundle: Your generated .aix extension bundle will be available inside the out/ directory, along with auto-generated markdown documentation extension.txt!

For comprehensive usage guidelines, configurations reference, and architectural deep dives:

• Refer to DOCUMENTATION.md
• Read the full offline wiki guide: WIKI.md
• See how Bolt works under the hood: how-to-work.md

Got an issue, feature request, or just want to help build Bolt?

• Issues / Bug Reports: Open an Issue
• Pull Requests: We welcome PRs! Please fork the repository and create a pull request with your proposed changes.

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Built with ❤️ for the MIT App Inventor Community.