Working Without the CLI

Everything the wheels CLI does to a running app goes through surfaces the framework itself provides — which means every one of them is reachable without the CLI. This page is the map. Bookmark it if you installed manually or run CommandBox.

CommandBox teams

This is your page too: box manages your server and fetches the framework, but for framework tasks — reload, migrate, test, seed — follow the equivalents below (they work regardless of what serves the app). Task pages across the guides label this path “Without the wheels CLI”.

The equivalents table

Task	With the wheels CLI	Without the wheels CLI	Available in
Reload the app after config/code changes	wheels reload	?reload=true&password=<your-reload-password> appended to any app URL	Any environment with a non-empty reloadPassword (rate-limited; set it in .env). Restarting the app server also reloads.
Run migrations	wheels migrate latest	Browser: the migrator GUI at /wheels/migrator. Programmatic: application.wheels.migrator.migrateToLatest() or .migrateTo(version)	GUI: development only. Programmatic: any environment. set(autoMigrateDatabase=true) runs pending migrations at application start.
Check migration status	wheels migrate info	/wheels/migrator (shows applied/pending), or application.wheels.migrator.getCurrentMigrationVersion()	GUI: development only. Programmatic: any environment.
Write a migration	wheels g migration <name>	Create app/migrator/migrations/[timestamp]_[description].cfc by hand — it’s a plain CFC with up()/down(); copy any existing one as a starting point. See Migrations.	n/a (files on disk)
Run app tests	wheels test	/wheels/app/tests in a browser; append ?format=json for machine-readable results (that’s all the CLI does)	Development only
Seed data	wheels seed	application.wheels.seeder.runSeeds() — callable from anywhere server-side (an admin action, a deploy hook, one-off script)	Any environment
Inspect routes	wheels routes	/wheels/routes in a browser, or the debug bar’s Tools panel	Development only
App/framework info	wheels info	/wheels/info, or the debug bar’s Environment panel	Development only
Install a package	wheels packages add <name>	Download the package release and extract into vendor/<name>/, then reload — packages are auto-discovered from vendor/*/package.json at startup. See Packages.	n/a (files on disk)
Generate models/controllers/scaffolds	wheels g …	No runtime equivalent — generators just write files. Copy the patterns from The Basics or the snippets under app/snippets/.	n/a
Upgrade the framework	wheels upgrade apply	Swap vendor/wheels/ with the new release’s core zip — full recipe at Upgrading Without the CLI	n/a (files on disk)
Create a new app	wheels new	Two zip downloads — Manual Installation	n/a

Why the “development only” rows are locked

The browser surfaces under /wheels/* (migrator GUI, test runners, routes, info) are gated by a development-only allowlist — since 4.0.4 (#2903) they return 404 in every other environment, and set(enablePublicComponent=true) cannot open them outside development. That’s deliberate: they expose schema and internals no production app should serve.

So the production-safe versions are the programmatic ones: application.wheels.migrator.migrateToLatest() and application.wheels.seeder.runSeeds() called from your own protected code path (a deploy hook, an authenticated admin action), plus the URL reload — which works in production precisely because it demands the reloadPassword you set in .env. Production Configuration and Security Hardening cover hardening both.

Tip

Nothing on this page is a second-class workaround. The CLI calls these same surfaces — wheels test hits the same runner as /wheels/app/tests?format=json. Choosing not to install the CLI costs you typing, not capability.