1

Prerequisites

2

Install Soli CLI

Recommended Quick Install

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solisoft/soli_lang/main/install.sh | sh

This detects your OS and architecture, downloads the latest release binary, and installs it to ~/.local/bin.

When run as root (e.g. through sudo, or inside a Docker image build), the installer automatically targets /usr/local/bin so every user can run soli — no --system flag needed:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solisoft/soli_lang/main/install.sh | sudo sh

A global install also removes any stale per-user copy (e.g. /root/.local/bin/soli) left by older installs, so PATH can't shadow the new binary with an outdated one.

For system-wide installation as a non-root user (the script uses sudo for the copy step):

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solisoft/soli_lang/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --system

To force a per-user install even when running as root, pass --user.

Via Cargo

cargo install solilang

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/solisoft/soli_lang.git
cd soli_lang

# Build and install the soli CLI
cargo install --path .

# Verify installation
soli --version

Updating

soli update replaces the binary in place, wherever it was installed. If Soli lives in a root-owned directory (such as /usr/local/bin), run the update with sudo:

sudo soli update

Running soli update without the needed permissions prints a hint telling you to re-run with sudo.

3

Create Your Project

# Create a new Soli app
soli new my_app

This command creates a new project with everything you need:

• MVC directory structure (app/controllers, app/views, app/models)
• Tailwind CSS configuration and dependencies
• Home controller and welcome page
• Application layout with responsive design
• Helper functions for views

4

Start Development Server

cd my_app
soli serve . --dev

Your app is now running at http://localhost:5011. In --dev mode the server also compiles your Tailwind CSS automatically — it auto-detects Tailwind v3 vs v4 (v4 needs no tailwind.config.js) and recompiles app/assets/css into public/css on change, so a separate watcher is optional.

Docker

Soli ships an official container image on the GitHub Container Registry, rebuilt and published for every release.

# Pull the latest release (or pin a version, e.g. :v1.13.5)
docker pull ghcr.io/solisoft/soli_lang:latest

The image's entrypoint is the soli binary, so any soli subcommand works as the container command:

docker run --rm ghcr.io/solisoft/soli_lang:latest --version

Run a Soli app in a container

Mount your project into the container and publish the server port. The server binds 0.0.0.0 by default, so the published port is reachable from the host:

docker run --rm -p 5011:5011 \
  -v "$(pwd):/app" -w /app \
  ghcr.io/solisoft/soli_lang:latest serve . --port 5011

Your app is now available at http://localhost:5011.

Build the image yourself

The repository ships a multi-stage Dockerfile that compiles a release binary and copies it into a slim Debian runtime:

git clone https://github.com/solisoft/soli_lang.git
cd soli_lang
docker build -t soli .
docker run --rm soli --version

Project Structure

Understanding the layout of a Soli MVC application.

my_app/
├── app/
│   ├── controllers/          # Request handlers
│   │   └── home_controller.sl
│   ├── helpers/              # View helpers
│   │   └── application_helper.sl
│   ├── models/               # Data models
│   └── views/                # Templates
│       ├── home/
│       │   └── index.html.slv
│       └── layouts/
│           └── application.html.slv
├── config/
│   └── routes.sl           # Route definitions
├── db/
│   └── migrations/           # Database migrations
├── public/                   # Static files
│   ├── css/
│   │   ├── app.css           # Source (Tailwind v4, CSS-first config)
│   │   └── output.css        # Compiled CSS
│   ├── js/
│   └── images/
├── tests/                    # Test files
├── .env                      # Environment variables
└── package.json              # Node.js dependencies

Production Deployment

# Start production server
soli serve . --port 5011

# Or run as a daemon (background process)
soli serve . -d

Next Steps