The CLI Dev Tool generates a new domain's scaffolding in GymRevenue from a single command, and cut feature delivery time by close to 40%.
It is the internal tool that sits beside the product rather than inside it, and the only one of these projects whose payoff was measured directly in developer time.
Problem
GymRevenue's architecture put the same set of files behind every new domain. Adding one meant writing that set again by hand, which is slow the first time and worse afterwards: every hand-written copy drifts a little from the last, so the shape the architecture assumes stops being the shape the code has.
Constraints
The tool writes source files into a working tree, which is a capability worth keeping well away from anything running in production. It was deliberately configured to execute only in a local environment, and to refuse to run in a server environment at all.
That was a design decision rather than a limitation discovered late, and it is the reason the tool has no deployment story to speak of.
Approach
Code generation from templates, with the templates customisable by the team rather than fixed in the tool, and parameterised per domain. The generated output is the same shape every time, which is the actual product: consistency, not typing saved.
Outcome
One command replaces the scaffolding pass at the start of a feature. The architecture's conventions live in the templates, so they are applied rather than remembered.
Results
Feature delivery time fell by close to 40%.