CLI reference

makeapp and ma are equivalent executables. Run commands from the project root unless the command creates a new project.

ma [COMMAND] --help

Every subcommand accepts --debug for additional diagnostic output.

ma new

ma new [OPTIONS] APP_NAME TARGET_PATH [CUSTOM_ARGS]...

Creates a project in TARGET_PATH. The default scaffold is always included.

Option	Description
-d, --description TEXT	Set the short project description.
-l, --license ALIAS	Select no, mit, apache2, gpl2, gpl3, bsd2cl, or bsd3cl.
-vcs, --vcs git	Select the VCS implementation.
-f, --configuration_file FILE	Read rollout settings from an additional INI file.
-s, --templates_source_path DIR	Search for named templates in another directory.
-o, --overwrite_on_conflict	Replace existing destination files when paths conflict.
--no-prompt	Skip standard confirmation prompts.
-t, --templates_to_use LIST	Apply comma-separated template names or directory paths.

Additional template settings use --name value pairs. For example:

ma new website ./website -t webscaff --no-prompt \
  --webscaff_domain example.com \
  --webscaff_email admin@example.com \
  --webscaff_host 203.0.113.10

In interactive mode, ma new can check the name on PyPI, initialize Git, configure a remote, push an initial commit, and create .venv. With --no-prompt, Git and .venv initialization remain enabled, while name checking and the initial remote push are skipped.

ma change

ma change [DESCRIPTION]...

Adds one or more descriptions to the Unreleased section of CHANGELOG.md, stages modified tracked files together with the changelog, and commits them.

ma change "+ Add JSON output" "* Fix help text"

See Publishing for markers and version selection.

ma release

ma release [--increment major|minor|patch]

Pulls remote changes, calculates the next version, shows the release summary, and asks whether to commit and publish. On commit it updates the package version and changelog, creates a release commit, and creates an annotated Git tag. Publishing then pushes commits and tags, builds distributions, and uploads them to PyPI.

Without --increment, a ++ changelog entry selects a minor release and all other entries select a patch release.

ma publish

ma publish

Publishes the current version without changing version files or creating a tag. It pulls and pushes the Git repository, pushes tags, runs uv build, and runs uv publish.

ma up

ma up [--reset] [--tool]

Runs uv sync for the current project.

• -r, --reset removes .venv before synchronization.
• -t, --tool additionally installs the current project as a forced editable uv tool.

ma tools

ma tools [--upgrade]

Installs Ruff. -u or --upgrade updates uv and reinstalls the configured tools.

ma style

Runs ruff check --fix. This checks code and applies available fixes, but does not run ruff format.

ma tests

Runs the GitHub Actions matrix configured for the project. Repeat -o or --only to select environment identifiers:

ma tests -o py314_django600 -o py312_django520

See Local testing for matrix configuration and environment selection.

ma docs

Starts mkdocs serve -o by default. Use -b or --build to run mkdocs build without starting a server:

ma docs --build