Clojure and Clojure CLI

Clojure CLI (command line interface) is the latest approach to working with Clojure projects, libraries an tools. The Clojure CLI focuses on:

running Clojure code (applications and tools)
starting a REPL process (Read-Eval-Print Loop) for interactive development with a Clojure editor or a command line REPL UI.
managing dependencies (via tools.deps) and downloads from Maven and Git repositories

The Clojure CLI is extended by adding aliases for community libraries and tools, e.g. practicalli/clojure-deps-edn

Common tasks for Clojure development

Commands to use for common tasks and where their aliases are included in Clojure CLI tools or require an alias (either in a project or user-wide deps.edn file).

Task	Command	Defined In
Basic terminal UI REPL	`clojure` or `clj` if `rlwrap` binary installed	Clojure CLI
Enhanced terminal UI REPL (Rebel and nREPL)	`clojure -M:repl/rebel`	Practicalli
Create project (clojure exec)	`clojure -T:project/new :template app :name domain/appname :args '["+h2"]'`	Practicalli
Run unit tests / watch for changes	`clojure -X:test/run` or `clojure -X:test/watch`	Practicalli
Run the project (clojure.main)	`clojure -M -m domain.main-namespace`	No Alias
Run a function from the project (clojure.exec)	`clojure -X:run/greet`	Project
Find libraries (mvn & git)	`clojure -M:search/library library-name`	Practicalli
Download dependencies	`clojure -P` (plus optional execution flags with aliases)	CLojure CLI
Check for new dependency versions	`clojure -T:search/outdated`	Practicalli
Package library	`clojure -X:build/jars`	Practicalli
Deploy library locally	`clojure -X:deps mvn-install`	Clojure CLI
Package application	`clojure -X:build/uberjar`	Project
Check code for unused vars	`clojure -X:search/unused`	Practicalli

Clojure CLI can also be used for evaluating an expressions or running Clojure from files as scripts, although these approaches are less common.

clojure -M:lib/hotload:repl/rebel runs a rich terminal UI REPL which can use add-libs to hotload dependencies into a running REPL process.

Clojure CLI version

clojure -Sdescribe shows the version of Clojure CLI currently installed.

The -Sverbose flag shows the Clojure CLI version and basic configuration before running any task, e.g. clojure -Sverbose -M:repl/rebel will show the Clojure CLI details and then run Rebel terminal UI.

Clojure CLI execution option flags

The execution option flags for the clojure command define how to run Clojure code.

Flag	Purpose
`-A`	Pass alias to built-in terminal UI REPL (`clojure` or `clj`)
`-M`	Run Clojure project with clojure.main
`-P`	Prepare / dry run (Build scripts, CI servers, Containers)
`-X`	Execute a fully qualified function, optional default arguments
`-T`	Run a tool independently from a project configurations
`-J`	Java Virtual Machine specific options (heap size, etc)

Which flag to use?

The -M flag is used when calling a -main function from a specified namespace. Arguments can be passed as free-form string options.

The -X flag is used to call a fully qualified function, which can be any function on the command line. Arguments are passed as key/value pairs and strings / collection syntax should be escaped with single quotes. -X can use :replace-deps and :replace-paths values to remove project :deps and :paths

-T flag removes project paths and deps, so is run independent of a Clojure project configuration. Tools can be installed and referred to by name, or used via an alias name and have default configuration attached.

Read the article: Clojure CLI - which execution option to use

Which version of Clojure

Evaluate *clojure-version* in a REPL shows which version of the Clojure language is currently being used.

Including org.clojure/clojure in the project deps.edn file allows specification of a particular version of the Clojure language. The Clojure CLI also has a default version of the Clojure dependency, which is used if no other dependency is specified.

Clojure CLI Overview