Rowork

The meta-framework CLI for Roblox game development.

Rowork is to Roblox what artisan is to Laravel: a single CLI that sets up the toolchain, runs it, generates code and keeps your architecture coherent.

⚠️ This is only the very beginning

Rowork is at version 0.1.1. The goal is big: a real meta-framework for Roblox, from the first line of a project to a live game. What exists today is a small first step towards it, and most of the vision is not built yet.

• Expect missing features, bugs and breaking changes without warning.
• It has been tried on very few games so far, and it is version 0.1.0.
• Do not build a serious game on it yet. Come and look, try it, and tell us what is wrong.

The roadmap says what exists and what is missing, without promises.

The problem

Starting a modern Roblox project means wiring Rojo, roblox-ts, Flamework, a pinned toolchain and a package manager together by hand: either several hours of setup, or a GitHub template that goes stale in three months. And once the project is running, nothing keeps file #200 consistent with the architecture of file #1.

What Rowork does

• Generates. rowork start walks you through creating a project; rowork init does it without questions. make:service, make:controller and make:component create Flamework classes and register them; make:stat and make:event extend your saved data and networking without a forgotten line, and make:screen and make:ui build your interface without plumbing.
• Orchestrates. rowork dev runs the roblox-ts compiler, the Rojo server and a sourcemap watcher together, with unified logs and a clean shutdown.
• Installs the toolchain. Rokit and Rojo can be installed for you, with the download verified by checksum.
• Extends. A plugin system so the community can add its own commands.

What is not there yet

Rowork is at the start, and a lot is still missing. Today there is nothing for:

• an existing project: rowork init starts a new one, nothing adopts a game that already exists;
• changing your saved data once players already have some (migrations);
• tests for your game, several environments (development, production), feature flags, monitoring;
• seeing your interface in a browser (only the UI Labs plugin inside Studio);
• a plugin ecosystem: the plugin API is tiny and will change, and no plugin exists yet;
• Wally packages from TypeScript, or anything outside roblox-ts, Flamework and Rojo.

What Rowork does not do

Rowork does not replace Rojo, roblox-ts, Flamework or Wally: it drives them. default.project.json, tsconfig.json and package.json stay plain, visible, editable files, and you can drop down to the bare tools at any time. No lock-in.

Quick start

npm install -g rowork

Building it from the repository instead (for development or contributing) is documented under Contributing.

Then:

rowork start         # guided setup: a few questions, then a ready project
cd MyGame
rowork dev           # compiler + Rojo + sourcemap, together

Connect the Rojo plugin in Studio and you are live. The full walkthrough, including Studio, is in Getting started.

Documentation

Getting started	install, create a project, see it in Studio
Commands	every command and flag
Project structure	what is generated, where your code goes
Configuration	rowork.json
How rowork dev works	orchestration, first build, shutdown
Plugins	write and share commands
Troubleshooting	fix an error message
Architecture	the codebase and its decisions
Contributing	development setup and workflow
Roadmap	what exists, what is next

License

MIT