Litestar Builder

Litestar Builder creates Litestar projects and adds domain modules to projects using the bundled template in src/lst_builder/assets.

Why use Litestar Builder?

Starting a backend project often means repeatedly setting up the same application structure, configuration, database integration, and feature-module boilerplate before you can focus on your product. Litestar Builder automates that setup by generating a ready-to-customize Litestar project from a consistent template, including a src-based package layout and starter application components.

The lst-build domain command extends a generated project with a feature module's controller, schemas, service, dependencies, guards, and database model. This gives new domains a consistent starting structure and avoids manually creating and wiring those files each time. The generated code is intended as a starting point that you can adapt; Litestar Builder does not replace Litestar or make application-specific design decisions for you.

Create a project

lst-build project my-project
cd my-project
uv sync

The command creates ./my-project by default. To use an existing or custom directory as the project root, pass it as the second argument; files are created directly in that directory:

lst-build project my-project ./workspace

The generated project uses a src/<package> layout. The package name defaults to the snake_case project name and can be set explicitly:

lst-build project my-project --package my_app

Generated project structure

A generated project uses a src layout. The package directory is named after the selected package name (shown as my_app here):

my-project/
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── .python-version
├── README.md
├── pyproject.toml
├── uv.lock
└── src/
    └── my_app/
        ├── __main__.py
        ├── __metadata__.py
        ├── cli/
        ├── core/
        │   ├── server/
        │   ├── settings/
        │   └── utils/
        ├── db/
        │   ├── fixtures/
        │   ├── migrations/
        │   └── models/
        └── domain/
            └── accounts/
                ├── controller/
                ├── schemas/
                ├── services/
                ├── deps.py
                └── guards.py

• The project-root files contain package metadata and dependencies (pyproject.toml, uv.lock), Python-version and Git settings, and the template README and environment example.
• __main__.py starts the Litestar CLI. core/server/ configures the application and its plugins, core/settings/ holds application and infrastructure settings, and core/utils/ contains shared helpers.
• db/models/ holds SQLAlchemy models, db/migrations/ contains Alembic configuration and migration history, and db/fixtures/ is the location for fixture data.
• domain/accounts/ is the starter account feature. Its controllers define routes, schemas describe request and response data, services hold business and persistence operations, deps.py provides injected dependencies, and guards.py contains route access checks.

The template's sample CRUD domain and sample model are not copied into a new project. Add a feature domain with lst-build domain inventory; this creates src/my_app/domain/inventory/ with controller, schema, service, dependency, and guard modules, plus src/my_app/db/models/inventory.py.

Add a domain

Run the command from inside a generated project:

lst-build domain inventory

Add multiple domains by separating their names with spaces:

lst-build domain inventory billing notifications

The command creates a domain module under <package>/domain/inventory and a matching database model under <package>/db/models. Controllers are discovered by the generated project's domain plugin; the model is registered in db/models/__init__.py for migration discovery.