generate api - BackAnt

ant generate api creates a complete, ready-to-run Flask project from a template or a JSON spec.

Syntax

ant generate api <project_name> [--json <spec>] [--verbose] [--dry-run]

Arguments

Argument	Description
`project_name`	Name of the directory to create (e.g. `my-api`, `shop`)

Options

Option	Description
`--json <spec>`	JSON string or path to a spec file. Generates routes from the spec. If omitted, only the base template is copied.
`--verbose`, `-v`	Print step-by-step generation progress. No effect in `--report` mode.
`--dry-run`	Validate the spec and show what would be generated — no files are created.

Examples

Bare scaffold

ant generate api my-api

Creates my-api/ with the full project template and a single default route at GET /.

From a spec file

ant generate api shop --json api-spec.json

From an inline JSON string

ant generate api shop --json '{"routes": {"products": {"type": "GET"}}}'

Validate without generating

ant generate api shop --json api-spec.json --dry-run

With verbose progress

ant generate api shop --json api-spec.json --verbose

Machine-readable output

ant --report generate api shop --json api-spec.json

What gets generated

Running ant generate api my-api --json api-spec.json creates:

my-api/
├── api/
│   ├── routes/<route>_route.py         (one per route in spec)
│   ├── services/<route>_service.py
│   ├── repositories/<route>_repository.py
│   ├── models/<Route>_model.py
│   ├── startup/Alchemy.py              (with model imports added)
│   └── app.py                          (with blueprints registered)
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Dockerfile
└── .env

Success output

Successfully generated API project 'shop' from JSON!
   Generated: 3 routes, 5 subroutes

Error cases

Error	Cause
`Error: Directory 'shop' already exists.`	Project folder already exists
`Error: Template directory '...' does not exist.`	CLI installation issue
`JSON validation failed: ...`	Spec format error — see validation messages

Running your project

After generation:

cd my-api
docker-compose up --build
curl http://localhost:5000/

See Deployment for full details.

​Syntax

​Arguments

​Options

​Examples

​Bare scaffold

​From a spec file

​From an inline JSON string

​Validate without generating

​With verbose progress

​Machine-readable output

​What gets generated

​Success output

​Error cases

​Running your project