Flisk is an open-source command-line tool that runs every part of a multi-service app (API, website, worker, database) on your own computer with one command. The README says a small app starts "as two local processes in about a second", with no Docker.

  • Repo URL: https://github.com/flisk-sh/flisk
  • Language: TypeScript CLI (Ink terminal UI). Runs on Node.js 22.12+. Your own services can be Node, Python, Go, Rust, JVM, Ruby or PHP.
  • Try it: npx @flisk-sh/flisk demo. No signup, no global install. With Docker and Tilt it starts a six-service restaurant demo with Postgres, one gateway and live reload. Without them it starts a small menu app as two local processes and prints their URLs (usually http://localhost:3000; it picks a free port if that one is busy), and flisk down stops it.
  • CLI:
    • flisk create asks a few questions and writes a project that runs.
    • flisk import . reads a docker-compose.yml and writes one service.json per Compose service, keeping ports, names and env values.
    • flisk up starts services in health-checked dependsOn order and prints a *.localhost URL for each.
    • flisk status, flisk logs and flisk doctor show what is running and what is wrong.
    • flisk down stops everything.
  • Config: One small service.json per service. From it Flisk writes the Dockerfile, the Compose entry, the Traefik route, the health check and DATABASE_URL. It refuses to start if a generated file was edited by hand, and flisk config verify reports drift.
  • Docker: Optional. Services that each declare a command run as plain local processes. A database, one gateway URL for every service, or the same container you deploy need Docker (Engine 25+) and Tilt 0.25+.
  • For AI helpers: flisk mcp is an MCP server with 24 tools for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. flisk connect claude (or cursor, codex) adds it. The idea is that the helper writes your app and Flisk writes the setup around it, the same way every time.
  • Speed (from the repo's own benchmarks):
    • A plain Compose app (a Node API and Postgres) answered through Flisk's router 49 s after flisk import on a clean Ubuntu CI runner, images pulled and built from scratch.
    • With warm image layers, a one-backend stack is healthy in 12.8 to 13.8 seconds.
    • An 8-service stack settles in 32 to 42 seconds warm and about 4.5 minutes on its first cold build.
  • Licence: MIT. flisk up needs no key. Premium extras are optional.
  • Maturity: The npm package is at 1.4.x and the repo has thousands of commits. The README lists five teams that run flisk up on their own code, with their consent. The timings above come from CI runs the README links, not from an independent benchmark.
  • Not a deploy tool: It does not emit Kubernetes manifests and does not replace Helm, Kustomize, Flux or Argo. The one export scope is opt-in: flisk export render, wrangler and compose write render.yaml, wrangler.toml or a standalone docker-compose.yml. They write files only. They never deploy and never call a cloud API.
  • Windows: flisk demo and local processes work natively. The full Docker stack runs in Ubuntu on WSL2.
  • Not mentioned: Memory use compared with plain Compose, support for apps that need a local Kubernetes cluster, and any third-party benchmark.

When it fits, and when it does not

It fits when you run 3 to 10 services locally, you are tired of keeping a Compose file, a Tiltfile and a gateway config in sync by hand, or you want an AI helper to start and fix your stack without rewriting a Dockerfile each time.

It does not fit when your app is a single process, when your local setup already needs a real cluster, or when you want a tool that also ships to production.

Try it in 30 seconds 

npx @flisk-sh/flisk demo

Already have a Compose file?

npx @flisk-sh/flisk import . npx @flisk-sh/flisk up

Add --dry-run to import to preview first.

Repo: https://github.com/flisk-sh/flisk · Site: https://flisk.sh