First Steps with Buffy

This walkthrough creates a small Buffy project, defines a .proto schema, and generates libraries for two languages - Go and Rust - using the git variant so no registry accounts are needed.

Create a project

Create a directory for your project and add the standard layout:

mkdir tomato && cd tomato
mkdir proto .buffy

Define the manifest

Create a Buffy.toml at the project root:

[package]
name = "tomato"
description = "Tomato protocol buffers"
version = "0.1.0"
license = "MIT"
homepage = "https://github.com/example/tomato"
authors = ["Jane Doe <jane@example.com>"]

[source]
path = "proto"

See The Manifest Format for all available fields.

Add a .proto file

Create proto/greeter.proto:

syntax = "proto3";

package greeter;

service Greeter {
  rpc SayHello (HelloRequest) returns (HelloReply);
}

message HelloRequest {
  string name = 1;
}

message HelloReply {
  string message = 1;
}

Configure profiles

Create one profile file per language target.

.buffy/golang.toml:

[golang.git]
module = "github.com/example/tomato-go"
remote = "git@github.com:example/tomato-go.git"
branch = "main"
grpc = true

.buffy/rust.toml:

[rust.git]
name = "tomato"
edition = "2021"
remote = "git@github.com:example/tomato-rs.git"
branch = "main"
repository = "https://github.com/example/tomato-rs"
documentation = "https://github.com/example/tomato-rs"
grpc = true

The filename (e.g., golang.toml) becomes the profile name and shows up in build output. See Profiles Format for the full list of options per language.

Verify the toolchain

Before building, check that all required tools are installed:

buffy check

If anything is missing, Buffy prints an installation hint specific to your platform.

Build

Run Buffy without arguments to build every profile in parallel:

buffy

Each profile produces a complete, self-contained package under target/: