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Gitly Overview

Gitly is a supporting example for a broader point: Coil is a customer-app platform, not a storefront-only framework.

Use this page when you want to answer:

  • what a non-commerce Coil app looks like
  • which platform patterns survive when you remove catalog and checkout concerns
  • how to read the Gitly demo without treating it as the only valid app shape

The Core Pattern​

Coil customer apps keep the same structure regardless of product type:

  • app.toml declares the customer product contract
  • platform config wires runtime services and secrets
  • the customer app crate composes routes, modules, linked plugins, and extensions
  • the customer binary owns validate, migrate, assets, and serve/up

Gitly matters because it proves that structure still works for a forge-style app.

Canonical Customer-App Contract​

The smallest useful thing to look at is the app manifest shape. Gitly’s apps/gitly/app.toml contains the canonical ingredients:

[app]
name = "gitly"
display_name = "Gitly"

[modules]
enabled = ["admin", "cms", "media", "gitly-showcase"]

That snippet shows the real lesson:

  • customer apps choose a product identity
  • they enable only the modules they need
  • they can add customer-owned product modules such as gitly-showcase

This is a better first takeaway than "Gitly has repository pages."

Canonical Customer Binary Shape​

The lifecycle surface for a non-commerce app should look the same as it does for a store.

Gitly’s binary in apps/gitly/crates/gitly-bin/src/main.rs exposes:

enum Command {
    Describe,
    Validate,
    Assets { command: AssetsCommand },
    Migrate { command: MigrateCommand },
    Serve { bind: Option<String> },
    Up { bind: Option<String> },
    ExtensionChecksums,
    LinkedBackend { command: LinkedBackendCommand },
}

That is the real platform story:

  • customer apps own their lifecycle
  • the same verbs work for commerce and non-commerce products
  • linked backends and runtime-installed extensions remain first-class

What Gitly Adds On Top​

Gitly uses that platform shape to demonstrate:

  • customer-owned route vocabulary
  • linked Rust data shaping
  • API-style endpoints
  • theme switching
  • localized UI copy
  • scheduled-task demos
  • runtime-installed WASM

The product is different. The platform contract is the same.

Gitly As The Supporting Example​

Product contract and runtime config​

Read:

  • apps/gitly/app.toml
  • apps/gitly/platform.dev.toml

These show:

  • one-site non-commerce routing
  • locales and localised routes
  • a narrow module set
  • jobs, storage, cache, and asset config that look like any other Coil app

Composition root​

Read:

  • apps/gitly/crates/gitly-app/src/lib.rs

This file demonstrates:

  • customer-owned route mounting
  • customer module registration
  • linked plugin registration
  • extension loading

Product templates​

Read:

  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/home.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/explore.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/repository.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/issues.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/pulls.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/actions.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/organization.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/profile.html
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/search.html

These are supporting evidence that Coil’s HTML-first model works for dense product shells too.

Linked Rust and WASM​

Read:

  • apps/gitly/crates/gitly-backend/src/lib.rs
  • apps/gitly/extensions/gitly-community-pulse/package.toml
  • apps/gitly/extensions/gitly-actions-scheduler/package.toml
  • apps/gitly/crates/gitly-app/src/extensions.rs

That set shows the same first-party-vs-bounded-extension split that Shoppr shows, but without commerce vocabulary dominating the example.

Practical Rules To Copy​

  • start from the customer-app contract, not from page mocks
  • keep the customer binary as the first operational surface
  • use customer-owned modules and routes to define product vocabulary
  • use linked Rust for first-party data and policy
  • use WASM for bounded installable behaviour

Full Implementation Pointers​

  • apps/gitly/app.toml
  • apps/gitly/platform.dev.toml
  • apps/gitly/crates/gitly-app/src/lib.rs
  • apps/gitly/crates/gitly-bin/src/main.rs
  • apps/gitly/crates/gitly-backend/src/lib.rs
  • apps/gitly/templates/gitly/
  • apps/gitly/extensions/gitly-community-pulse/package.toml
  • apps/gitly/extensions/gitly-actions-scheduler/package.toml