agentc generate

Generate the project without compiling it.

agentc generate runs the manifest processing, tool transform, and code generation stages and stops before invoking cargo build. The result is a complete Rust project on disk that you can inspect, modify, or build manually.

agentc generate [CONTEXT] [OPTIONS]

Arguments

Argument	Default	Description
`CONTEXT`	`.`	Path to the directory containing `agent.acl`.

Options

Flag	Short	Default	Description
`--output <DIR>`	`-o`	`<CONTEXT>/artifacts/generated`	Directory to write the generated project into.
`--dry-run`		`false`	Run all pipeline stages but print the generated file contents to stdout instead of writing them to disk.
`--verbose`	`-v`	`false`	Print detailed output from each pipeline stage, including transformer subprocess output.
`--format <FORMAT>`		`auto`	Output format. `auto` selects TTY or plain based on the terminal. `plain` disables colors and progress indicators.
`--cleanup`		`false`	Delete ephemeral build artifacts (for example, temporary virtual environments) after generation completes.

When to use it

Debugging a failed build. If agentc build fails during the compile stage, run agentc generate first. The generated Rust project will be on disk so you can read the generated source and understand what the compiler produced before cargo tried to build it.

Customising generated code. The generated project is a complete Rust workspace. You can modify it by hand, add files, or adjust generated source before building. Run agentc generate to produce the project, make your changes, then build it directly with cargo build --release.

Inspecting what the compiler produces. Use --dry-run to print all generated files to stdout without writing anything to disk.

Example

Generate the project in the current directory:

agentc generate
ls artifacts/generated/

Dry-run to inspect generated files:

agentc generate --dry-run

For the standalone archetype, the output directory contains a complete Rust workspace that you can open in any Rust-aware IDE or build directly with cargo.