Arc

Arc is a beta Rust framework for event-sourced web applications.

It uses Actix Web, Tera, SQLite or Postgres, NATS JetStream, and Benthos. Browser routes use cookie sessions; API routes use JWT bearer authentication.

Start a new application

You do not need to clone this repository. Install the generator and create a minimal application:

cargo install arc-web-cli
arc new my-app
cd my-app
make setup
make dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:8080/health.

For a browser UI with Tera views and assets:

arc new my-app --ui

The generated application owns its migrations, .env.example, Makefile, routes, and domain skeleton. make setup creates .env with a random local secret, creates SQLite, and runs migrations. It is safe to run again and does not replace an existing secret.

Generate a complete event-sourced resource from the application root:

arc generate resource Product --api
make migrate

This creates and registers the aggregate, commands, events, projector, read-model migration, focused tests, and JSON CRUD routes. Existing resources are never overwritten.

Requirements: stable Rust, SQLite development libraries, and make.

Contributing to Arc

Clone this repository only when developing Arc itself:

cp .env.example .env
make setup
make frontend-build
make serve

Run make deps-check to verify the repository’s Rust, Node.js, SQLite, and OpenSSL requirements.

Use another port

Port 8080 must be free. If it is busy, edit .env:

APP_PORT=8081

Then run make dev and open http://127.0.0.1:8081.

To find the process using port 8080 on Linux:

ss -ltnp '( sport = :8080 )'

Generated configuration

The quick start copies safe development defaults from .env.example.

The generated .env.example includes:

APP_URL=127.0.0.1
APP_PORT=8080
DATABASE_DRIVER=sqlite
DATABASE_URL=database/database.sqlite
SECRET_KEY=generate-me

make setup replaces generate-me with a random 64-byte secret in .env. Never commit .env.

Useful commands

make setup           # Create local config, database, and migrations
make dev             # Run the server
make serve           # Run the server (alias)
make migrate         # Apply database migrations
make test            # Run the full test suite
make check           # Compile without running

Run make help for the complete command list.

Architecture

• arc-core: aggregates, commands, events, projections, sessions, audit, and integrity primitives
• arc-es-sqlite: SQLite event, read-model, snapshot, and session stores
• arc-es-postgres: Postgres event, read-model, and snapshot stores
• arc-es-nats: NATS JetStream event publisher
• arc-web: reusable Actix runtime and framework helpers
• arc-web-cli: the published package that installs the arc new application and resource generator
• arc-app: application-owned domains, routes, templates, validation, and migrations

Benthos is the only durable distributed event router. It consumes events.> and delivers to HTTP or NATS handlers; it never writes Arc databases directly.

Documentation

• Getting started
• Architecture
• Database
• Testing
• Event handlers
• Upgrading
• Publishing crates