CLI

The Nerva CLI scaffolds projects, generates components, runs a dev server with hot reload, and manages template plugins.

Installation

Install globally:

npm install -g nerva-cli

Or run without installing:

npx nerva <command>

Tip

Using npx nerva is the quickest way to try Nerva without committing to a global install. It always runs the latest published version.

Commands

Command	Alias	Description
nerva new <name>		Create a new Nerva project
nerva generate <type> <name>	nerva g	Generate a component (agent, tool, middleware, router)
nerva dev		Start dev server with hot reload
nerva test		Run tests using the language-appropriate runner
nerva list	nerva ls	List all registered components
nerva plugin install <source>		Install a template plugin
nerva plugin list	nerva plugin ls	List installed plugins
nerva plugin remove <name>		Remove an installed plugin

Project structure

Every Nerva project has a nerva.yaml at its root that declares the project name, language, and registered components:

name: my-agent
version: 0.1.0
lang: python
agents: []
tools: []
middleware: []
routers: []

The CLI reads and writes this file automatically when generating components or listing them.

Language support

The CLI supports two project languages:

• Python — uses pytest for testing, flat directory layout (agents/, tools/, middleware/)
• TypeScript — uses vitest for testing, src/ prefix layout (src/agents/, src/tools/, src/middleware/)

Note

The language is set at project creation (--lang python or --lang typescript) and recorded in nerva.yaml. It cannot be changed after the project is created.