Historical: From Quickstarts to Scaffolds

The useful historical point was this: SolverForge moved away from clone-and-edit quickstarts as the default way to start a new project.

The current product shape is now clearer than this article originally described:

cargo install solverforge-cli
solverforge new my-scheduler
cd my-scheduler
solverforge server

solverforge-cli creates one neutral application shell. It does not ask users to choose a problem-class starter, and it does not expose public starter-family flags such as --scalar, --list, or --mixed.

After scaffolding, the model grows through generators:

solverforge generate fact employee --field skill:String
solverforge generate entity shift --field starts_at:String --field ends_at:String
solverforge generate variable employee_idx --entity Shift --kind scalar --range employees
solverforge generate variable stops --entity Route --kind list --elements visits
solverforge generate constraint no_overlap --pair --hard

The current planning-variable terms are scalar and list. The older “standard-variable” phrasing should be treated as historical terminology, not current documentation.

Quickstarts and tutorials remain useful as worked examples. They are no longer the primary onboarding surface. For current usage, start with the solverforge-cli manual and the command reference.

What Remains True

• Worked examples are still valuable for studying modeling patterns.
• SolverForge still prefers explicit generated Rust over opaque runtime magic.
• The CLI still exists to move repeated project structure into tooling while keeping user-owned code visible.

What Changed

• The CLI is now the default project entry point, not a future direction.
• solverforge new creates one neutral shell instead of a menu of starter families.
• Scalar, list, and mixed models are introduced after scaffolding.
• Generated apps target the retained SolverForge runtime and expose REST, SSE, snapshot, analysis, and UI surfaces around solve jobs.

For the current architecture, read The Current SolverForge Architecture: CLI-First, Rust-Native, Explicit.