Detected stacks

When you add a site, DevCatz reads the project folder and works out what it is: the language, the framework, the package manager, the port it listens on and the database library it uses. That decides how the site runs, which runtime it needs and which buttons its tabs get. You can always override the dev command in the site’s Settings tab, and Re-detect stack looks at the folder again.

How detection works

DevCatz tries one language driver after the other, and the first match wins:

If the root runs nothing itself, DevCatz tries the folder layout: projects one level down, each with its own driver. Sites, domains and HTTPS explains monorepos and folders of apps.

The detected framework shows on the site’s Overview (Framework, Stack, Dev command) and as a tag in the sidebar, which the sidebar search matches too.

PHP

A folder is a PHP project when it has a composer.json together with artisan, public/index.php, index.php, web/index.php, webroot/index.php, spark or yii — or a wp-load.php, a CodeIgniter 3 layout, or a plain index.php without a package.json.

PHP sites are served by PHP-FPMPHP (FastCGI) workers, so there is no dev command to run: the site is Always on. Start only runs the extras, such as Vite or a queue worker (see Start and stop).

Frameworks, in the order DevCatz checks them:

A few things that make PHP apps feel at home:

• WordPress: the database is read from wp-config.php, so the Database tab knows which one the site uses.
• .htaccess: the proxy understands a subset of mod_rewrite, DirectoryIndex, PATH_INFO and a front-controller fallback, so pretty URLs of most PHP apps work as they do on Apache.
• WP-CLI: the WordPress tasks need wp on your path — brew install wp-cliput wp-cli.phar and a wp.bat on your Path (wp-cli.org); otherwise the task says so.

The tasks appear as buttons on the site’s Database tab (see Databases).

PHP data libraries

The Data access card on the Database tab names the library a PHP site uses: Eloquent ORM, Laravel DB Facade, Eloquent (Capsule), Doctrine, Phinx, Propel, Cycle ORM, RedBeanPHP, Medoo, Laminas DB and Hydrahon.

Python

A folder is a Python project when it has a pyproject.toml, requirements*.txt, a Pipfile, manage.py or setup.py. A JavaScript app that happens to have a pyproject.toml stays a JavaScript site unless it is clearly a Python web app.

The web framework is the first match of: Django, FastAPI, Litestar, Flask, Starlette, Quart, Sanic, Tornado, Pyramid, Falcon, Bottle, aiohttp and BlackSheep.

Django, Flask, FastAPI and Litestar have their own label; every other framework in the list shows with its own name and mark, and anything else shows as Python.

Django’s createsuperuser… asks only for a user name and sets the password to password — change it in the admin afterwards.

Across frameworks:

• Alembic: upgrade head, revision --autogenerate, downgrade -1.
• Celery: Celery worker and Celery beat switches in the site’s Settings tab, under Runs with Start.
• Package tool: uv (when there is a uv.lock), Poetry, PDM or Pipenv — used by Install dependencies. See Python and uv.

Python data libraries

Django ORM, SQLAlchemy, SQLModel, Peewee, Tortoise ORM, Aerich, Pony ORM, Piccolo, PyPika, Alembic, Flask-Migrate and Yoyo.

Node.js and Bun

Every JavaScript or TypeScript project with a package.json and a dev script. The package manager follows the lock file — bun.lock / bun.lockb → bun, pnpm-lock.yaml → pnpm, yarn.lock → yarn, package-lock.json → npm — then the packageManager field, and npm otherwise. The dev command is the project’s own dev script: bun run dev, pnpm run dev, yarn dev or npm run dev. Projects without one start with the script their tool uses: NestJS with start:dev, Angular and Vue CLI with their serve / start script.

Frameworks, in the order DevCatz checks them:

DevCatz reads the port from the dev script, the framework’s config file (nuxt.config, vite.config…) or .env. With Let DevCatz assign dev ports on, it hands the app a port of its own from 4100 up instead.

A few special cases:

• Electron apps — electron in dependencies or devDependencies: electron-vite (its dev script), Electron Forge (its start script, when there is no dev) or a plain electron .. There is no port to wait for or to manage, and the site wears the Electron mark. An app that allows only one copy at a time (requestSingleInstanceLock) quits at once while its installed copy is open — close that one first. When Electron’s own download is missing (its install step failed or was skipped), the Overview says Electron is not fully installed and offers Repair Electron. The Docker tab makes no container Dockerfile for it: electron-builder or Electron Forge build its installers.
• Tauri apps — a tauri script in package.json with src-tauri/tauri.conf.json beside it: the dev command is <pm> run tauri dev, which opens the app’s window and starts the frontend through Tauri’s beforeDevCommand. The site wears the Tauri mark; the frontend’s port (Vite’s 5173, say) stays listed in the Apps table.
• Desktop apps (Electron and Tauri) are sites without a web address: see below.
• Prisma gets its own card on the Database tab: migrate dev, db seed, generate, migrate reset….
• Workspaces (npm, yarn or bun workspaces, pnpm-workspace.yaml): every app with a dev script becomes an app of the site. Packages without a server still run as part of the root dev script, but get no domain.

Desktop apps

An Electron or Tauri site is a desktop app: Start opens its window, the way npm start does in a terminal. Because it has no web address, its page looks a little different — where other sites show their URL chip, it reads Desktop app · opens in its own window with the framework’s mark; the sidebar says desktop app under its name; there is no Share button and no browser entry in Open; the preview is replaced by a card, A desktop app (Start opens its window … It has no web address, so there is nothing to preview or share here; its output is in Logs); the Apps table shows — (its own window) where the URL would be (a Tauri frontend keeps its port); and the site’s Settings tab has no Domain and Protocol fields. Everything else — Env, Database, Git, Logs, the dependency checks — works as for any site. A Tauri app with no package.json is detected by the Rust driver instead.

Node.js data libraries

Knex.js, Drizzle ORM, Sequelize, Kysely, TypeORM, MikroORM, Mongoose, Objection.js, node-pg-migrate, db-migrate, Umzug and Prisma.

Go

A folder with a go.mod. DevCatz recognises Gin, Echo, Fiber, Chi, Gorilla mux, Beego, Iris, Buffalo, Hertz, Kratos, go-zero, GoFr and httprouter.

The dev command is the first that fits:

With air the server reloads on every save. The port comes from os.Getenv-style helpers in the code or a literal port, and Build runs go build -o bin/<name>.

Go data libraries

GORM, ent, sqlc, sqlx, Bun, pgx, SQLBoiler, Squirrel and goqu, plus the migration tools goose, golang-migrate, Atlas, dbmate, sql-migrate and tern. A GORM / Go card on the Database tab runs AutoMigrate, goose and the like.

Rust

A folder with a Cargo.toml, or a src-tauri/tauri.conf.json without a package.json (with one, it is a Node.js project — see Tauri apps above). Rust sites run on macOS and Windows; the toolchain comes from the Rust page.

The framework is the first crate found of: anchor-lang, tauri, loco-rs, leptos, dioxus, yew, sycamore, actix-web, axum, rocket, warp, poem, salvo, tide, tonic, hyper, bevy, burn and candle-*.

Rust web frameworks and apps

For servers run with cargo run, the port is read from PORT, ROCKET_PORT or a literal in the code; the table shows the framework’s default when none is set. Sites without a port count as running once started. Plain crates show as Rust.

In a Cargo workspace, each member with a server or a frontend becomes an app of the site. The tools these frameworks need (Trunk, Dioxus CLI, cargo-leptos, Tauri CLI, the WebAssembly target, Solana CLI, Anchor) can be installed from the site’s Overview or the Rust page — see Rust. Solana and Anchor are the exception: on Windows they live in WSL, as their docs say. The Docker tab writes no container for a Tauri app or an Anchor program; its Dockerfile says what builds them instead (cargo tauri build, anchor deploy).

Rust data libraries

Diesel, SeaORM, SQLx, Loco (SeaORM), Rbatis, Toasty and refinery, plus the drivers rusqlite, tokio-postgres, mysql_async and mongodb.

Last updated 2026-11-01