Applications

Anvil looks at the files in each folder to decide what kind of application it is. You can override the type with anvil app type <site> <kind> or in the app.

• PHP applications are served through PHP-FPM. The web root is public/ when it exists, otherwise the folder itself.

• Other applications run their own dev server on a private port. Anvil passes the port in $PORT (and ASPNETCORE_URLS for .NET) and proxies <name>.test to it. Node.js projects install their packages first if node_modules is missing. You can change the start command and the port per application. These apps also answer at <name>.localhost.

• Next.js in development only becomes interactive at localhost addresses and at the ones its next.config lists in allowedDevOrigins. Until the config lists .test, Anvil opens the app at <name>.localhost; Use <name>.test in the app's Overview adds allowedDevOrigins: ['**.test'] to next.config.

• A stopped application shows a "not running" page at its domain instead of an error.

• Node.js picks the version from .nvmrc or .node-version when it is installed; otherwise the newest installed version is used. Pin another one with anvil app runtime.

• Python applications run through uv, which Anvil installs (checked against a pinned checksum) together with the Python versions in ~/.anvil. Environments live in ~/.anvil/cache, so a .venv you already have is left alone. A pyproject.toml project (one with a [project] table) gets a uv.lock written next to it, as uv run does; a project with only requirements.txt gets nothing added. The Python version follows the project's .python-version and requires-python unless you pin one in the app. Anvil never installs a Python version by itself: if the project needs one that isn't installed, the app says so and you install it in Settings › Languages.

• Django checks the host name and, behind HTTPS, the scheme. The app's Overview shows the two lines to add to settings.py once:

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  if DEBUG:  # Anvil
      ALLOWED_HOSTS += [".test", "localhost", "127.0.0.1"]
      SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ("HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO", "https")

  Without them Django answers 400 Bad Request for .test addresses and forms fail their CSRF check. (With .localhost, Django's debug mode already accepts the host, but forms still need the proxy line.) They only apply in debug, so a deployed site keeps its own settings.

PHPCopy Anchor Link

PHP 8.0 to 8.5 are portable builds installed into ~/.anvil/php/<version>. Set a default version for everything (anvil use 8.4) and pin single applications to another one (anvil use 8.3 --site myapp). Memory limit, upload limit, execution time and any other php.ini value can be set for all applications (anvil php ini) or for one (anvil ini); an application with its own settings gets its own PHP-FPM pool.

LanguagesCopy Anchor Link

Node.js, Go, Rust (through rustup), .NET and Python (through uv) are installed into ~/.anvil/runtimes and only put on PATH for the applications Anvil runs. Their package and build caches go to ~/.anvil/cache, so ~/.npm, ~/go, ~/.cargo and ~/.nuget stay untouched. So do the caches of tools those runtimes run: node-gyp, Corepack, and anything that follows XDG_CACHE_HOME or XDG_STATE_HOME (giget, yarn, pnpm's state), unless you set those variables yourself. Next.js and Nuxt telemetry is off.

Two things stay where the tools themselves keep them:

• Go telemetry. Go writes small local usage counters to ~/Library/Application Support/go/telemetry, the folder your own Go uses too. Nothing is uploaded unless you ran go telemetry on. Go only lets the home folder move it, and changing that would hide your ~/.gitconfig, ~/.netrc and Go settings from builds, so Anvil leaves it. anvil uninstall doesn't remove it, since it isn't only Anvil's.
• Shared package stores a project already uses, like pnpm's store in ~/Library/pnpm: moving it would make pnpm refuse the project's existing node_modules.

anvil runtime list
anvil runtime install node 22

ProcessesCopy Anchor Link

Besides the site, an app often needs a few programs running while you work on it: a queue worker, a log tailer, Vite. The Processes group in an app's Overview lists them, with each one's newest line and Start/Stop; a name opens its output in the Logs tab. They run with Anvil's Node.js (the project's .nvmrc version when installed, else the newest) and, for PHP apps, the app's PHP. Nothing starts until you press Start; they stop when Anvil quits or the app is removed.

Anvil reads them from, in this order:

1. .anvil.toml in the project, for any kind of app:

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   [processes]
   queue = "php artisan queue:listen"
   vite = "npm run dev"

2. For PHP apps, Laravel's composer run dev script: each command it starts with concurrently, named by its --names. php artisan serve is left out because Anvil already serves the site.

3. For PHP apps without such a script, npm run dev when package.json has a dev script.

New applicationsCopy Anchor Link

Create a project from a template with anvil new <kind> <name> or the New Application sheet in the app: Laravel, Statamic, Symfony, PHP, static, Next.js, Nuxt, Vite, Node.js, Rust, Go, .NET, Django, FastAPI and Flask. Anvil uses its own PHP, Composer and language toolchains, so the matching PHP version or language must be installed first. Output goes to ~/.anvil/log/create-<name>.log, and a failed create leaves nothing behind. A new application outside a parked folder is linked.

StorageCopy Anchor Link

Anvil measures each application's disk use and sorts it into three groups:

• Safe: logs and caches. Delete any time.
• Rebuildable: dependencies and builds such as node_modules, vendor, target or .next. A command brings them back.
• Keep: your code and data, such as storage/app or a SQLite database. Anvil never deletes these.

In the app you can clean an application item by item, or clean the safe items of every application at once. Rebuildable items can only be deleted while the application is stopped. anvil usage shows the same numbers in the terminal, along with the services an application's .env points at, and anvil clean deletes them.