Getting started

Kilnx runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. A single binary, no runtime.

Install

Homebrew (macOS, Linux)

brew tap kilnx-org/tap
brew install kilnx

Direct download

Grab the latest release from github.com/kilnx-org/kilnx/releases, extract, and place kilnx on your PATH.

Verify

kilnx version

Hello world

Create app.kilnx:

page /
  "Hello World"

Run it:

kilnx run app.kilnx

Open http://localhost:8080. Two useful lines. That's a web server.

A real app in 20 lines

config
  database: env DATABASE_URL default "sqlite://app.db"

model post
  title: text required min 2 max 200
  body: richtext required
  created: timestamp auto

page /
  query posts: SELECT title, body, created FROM post
               ORDER BY created DESC paginate 10
  html
    <h1>Blog</h1>
    {{each posts}}
      <article>
        <h2>{title}</h2>
        <time>{created | timeago}</time>
        <div>{body | raw}</div>
      </article>
    {{end}}

action /posts/create method POST
  validate post
  query: INSERT INTO post (title, body) VALUES (:title, :body)
  redirect /

On first run, Kilnx auto-creates the SQLite database, runs migrations based on the model definitions, and serves the page. There is no separate migration step to run.

CLI essentials

Command Purpose
kilnx run <file> Dev server with hot reload
kilnx build <file> -o <binary> Compile to standalone binary
kilnx check <file> Static analysis (types, security, SQL)
kilnx test <file> Run declarative test blocks
kilnx migrate <file> Apply schema migrations (also runs automatically at run)
kilnx lsp Language Server Protocol endpoint for editors
kilnx mcp Model Context Protocol server for AI tools

See the full CLI reference for flags and options.

Next steps