Clojure projects

Clojure CLI projects use a deps.edn file to specifies source paths and libraries required for the project to run.

alias are defined in the deps.edn file to support development tasks, providing additional libraries, paths and tools.

Generate a project from a template

Create a project from a template for a consistent project structure and include commonly used libraries.

Practicalli Project Templates create production grade projects providing a detailed starting point with configuration files for building and deploying the project.

Create minimal project

Create a deps.edn file containing {} in the root of a directory for a minimal configuration.

Create a src directory as the root of the source code, and test directory to contain unit test code.

Linux command to create a minimal clojure project

Run these Linux commands in the root of a directory to create a minimal Clojure project structure.

touch deps.edn && echo '{}' > deps.edn && mkdir src test

The project can now be run with a REPL via a terminal UI or Clojure aware Editor.

Migrate project to Clojure CLI

Guide to Migrating a project to Clojure CLI

Project Structure

The essence of most Clojure CLI projects contains the following files and directories.

path	purpose
deps.edn	core project configuration, paths, dependencies and aliases
build.clj	build specific configuration, create jars and uberjars
src	root directory of Clojure source files
test	root directory for Clojure test source files
README.md	Description of the project and how to develop / maintain it
CHANGELOG.md	Meaningful history of changes to the project organised by release
.git	Local git repository and configuration
.gitignore	Git ignore patterns for the project

Example deps.edn configuration file

{:paths
 ["src" "resources"]

 :deps
 {org.clojure/clojure    {:mvn/version "1.11.1"}}
  http-kit/http-kit      {:mvn/version "2.6.0"}  
  metosin/reitit         {:mvn/version "0.5.13"}
  com.brunobonacci/mulog {:mvn/version "0.9.0"}

 :aliases
 {;; Clojure.main execution of application
  :run/service
  {:main-opts ["-m" "practicalli.donuts.service"]}

  ;; Clojure.exec execution of specified function
  :run/greet
  {:exec-fn   practicalli.donuts.service/greet
   :exec-args {:name "Clojure"}}

  ;; Add libraries and paths to support additional test tools
  :test/env
  {}

  ;; Test runner - local and CI
  ;; call with :watch? true to start file watcher and re-run tests on saved changes
  :test/run
  {:extra-paths ["test"]
   :extra-deps  {lambdaisland/kaocha {:mvn/version "1.85.1342"}}
   :main-opts   ["-m" "kaocha.runner"]
   :exec-fn     kaocha.runner/exec-fn
   :exec-args   {:randomize? false
                 :fail-fast? true}}

  ;; tools.build `build.clj` built script
  :build
  {:replace-paths ["."]
   :replace-deps  {io.github.clojure/tools.build
                   {:git/tag "v0.9.4" :git/sha "76b78fe"}}
   :ns-default    build}}}

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Last update: September 13, 2023