Installation

Step 1: Install Rust

What Framework is built with Rust. If you don't have Rust installed, follow the instructions for your operating system:

macOS

Open Terminal and run:


                curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Follow the prompts to complete installation. Then restart your terminal or run source $HOME/.cargo/env

Windows

Download and run the installer from rustup.rs

The installer will download and set up everything you need. You may need to install the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools if prompted.

After installation, verify Rust is working by running cargo --version in a new terminal window.

Step 2: Install What Framework

Once Rust is installed, install What Framework with Cargo:


              cargo install run-what

This will download, compile, and install the run-what command globally.

Step 3: Create Your First Project

Create a new project


                run-what new myproject

                cd myproject

Or create the full demo site with run-what new demo

Start development server


                run-what dev

Open http://127.0.0.1:8085 in your browser. Live reload is enabled—changes auto-refresh.

Build for production


                run-what build --output dist

Project Structure

myproject/
  pages/              # HTML templates (routes)
    application.what  # Directory-level config
    admin/            # Nested routes (/admin/*)
      application.what  # Inherits from parent
  components/         # Custom <what-*> components
  static/             # CSS, JS, images
  data/               # JSON data & sessions.db
  wwwhat.toml         # Server configuration

Source Code

What Framework? is and will always be free to use. The source code is available on GitHub for viewing and reporting issues. Past the first phase, it will likely become fully open source as well.