.blower Projects

A .blower file is the Sydrogen project configuration format. It names the project output and declares exactly which .anvil files belong to the project.

Project
{
    Name = "PlaceHolder";
}

Files
{
    location = "src/*.anvil";
    location = "tests/*.anvil";
}

Project and Name

The Project section contains project metadata. Project.Name is required and becomes the executable filename. The example above produces build/PlaceHolder on platforms that do not add an executable suffix.

Names may contain letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens.

Files and location

The Files section contains one or more location entries. Only .anvil sources matched by these entries belong to the project. Entries are evaluated relative to the directory containing the .blower file, regardless of the shell's current directory.

* matches within one path component, ? matches one character, and ** matches directories recursively. For example:

Files
{
    location = "src/*.anvil";
    location = "src/**/*.anvil";
}

Files matched by more than one entry are compiled once. Furnace orders source paths deterministically.

Building a project

Build a project through its .blower file:

furnace build project.blower
furnace build project.blower --backend native
furnace build project.blower --backend cranelift
furnace build project.blower --windows

furnace backend native or furnace backend cranelift saves the default used when --backend is omitted. The saved choice persists across Furnace invocations.

Furnace parses all matched sources as one project, performs project-wide semantic analysis, and writes the executable to build/ beside the .blower file. Both backends use the same output path derived from Project.Name.

For a standalone source file, continue to use:

furnace compile file.anvil linux
furnace compile file.anvil --windows

The compile command retains its existing single-file output behavior; it does not redirect standalone files through project builds.

Creating a project

furnace new console -n MyProject

This creates an immediately buildable layout:

MyProject/
├── MyProject.blower
└── src/
    └── Main.anvil

From MyProject/, run furnace build MyProject.blower.

To compile and immediately run all sources in a project without writing its normal build/ output, use furnace run MyProject.blower.