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Introduction to Form-Data CLI

The Form-Data CLI (fd) is a powerful command-line tool to create, manage, and deploy forms for your website or application, using simple .fd files that describe your forms as code.

Instead of building forms by hand in HTML or a GUI editor, you define them declaratively in .fd files and use the CLI to handle the rest - from previewing locally to deploying live forms in production.

What you can do with the CLI​

  • Generate forms as .fd files, starting from templates
  • Preview forms live with hot reloading in development
  • Deploy forms to production
  • Promote forms across environments (e.g., staging → prod)
  • Sync form settings like spam filtering, email replies, and more
  • Connect your project to a workspace and store the credentials in your environment

How it works​

  1. You use the CLI to login to Form-Data and choose a workspace
  2. You use the CLI to create a new project or add Form-Data to an existing code base.
  3. You use the CLI to create new .fd form files, starting from one of the templates.
  4. You edit the form files. You can live-preview the form in the browser while editing.
  5. You use the CLI to deploy the forms to Staging or production.
  6. You get a live URL that you can share with your customers and start collecting responses.
  7. Optionally, you can embed the live form into your website using an embed script, or using Vue, React or Svelte components.

Why use this?​

  • Maintain forms alongside your app or site code
  • Easily promote form changes across environments
  • Track form history with version control
  • Automate form deployment in CI/CD pipelines

Form-Data CLI fits naturally into modern developer workflows and pairs seamlessly with frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte.