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Integration Guide

How to integrate Wings into your development workflow and build systems.

Build System Integration

Wings can be integrated into various build systems to automatically generate code when schemas change.

Make

Add Wings generation to your Makefile:

# Makefile
WINGS_FILES := $(wildcard schemas/*.wings)

.PHONY: generate clean

generate:
    wings schemas/api.wings

clean:
    rm -rf src/generated/

build: generate
    # Your build commands here
    go build ./...

npm Scripts (Node.js/TypeScript)

{
  "scripts": {
    "generate": "wings schemas/api.wings",
    "prebuild": "npm run generate",
    "build": "tsc"
  }
}

Python setuptools

# In your build script
import subprocess
import os

def generate_wings():
    subprocess.run(['wings', 'schemas/models.wings'], check=True)

# Call before your main build process
generate_wings()

Multi-Repository Workflows

Shared Schema Repository

For teams with separate backend and frontend repositories:

shared-schemas/
├── wings.json
├── models/
│   ├── user.wings
│   └── api.wings

backend/
├── wings.json          # langFilter: ["go"]
└── shared-schemas/     # git submodule or copy

frontend/
├── wings.json          # langFilter: ["ts"] 
└── shared-schemas/     # git submodule or copy

Backend wings.json: 

{
  "langFilter": ["go"],
  "outputRootDirs": ["./internal/models"]
}

Frontend wings.json: 

{
  "langFilter": ["ts"],
  "outputRootDirs": ["./src/types"]
}

Development Workflow

File Organization

Recommended project structure: 

project/
├── wings.json
├── schemas/
│   ├── user.wings
│   └── api.wings
├── src/
│   └── generated/     # Generated files
└── README.md

Version Control Considerations

Option 1: Commit Generated Files - Add generated files to version control - Ensures all developers have consistent generated code - Good for teams where not everyone has Wings installed

Option 2: Generate During Build - Add generated files to .gitignore - Generate code as part of build process - Requires all developers to have Wings installed

# Option 2: Don't commit generated files
src/generated/
*.generated.*

Pre-commit Workflow

Consider regenerating files when schemas change:

#!/bin/bash
# Simple pre-commit script
if git diff --cached --name-only | grep -q '\.wings$'; then
    echo "Wings files changed, regenerating..."
    wings schemas/api.wings
    git add src/generated/
fi

IDE Integration

VS Code

Install the Wings extension for syntax highlighting: 

code --install-extension binhonglee.vscode-wings

File Watching

Automatically regenerate when schemas change:

# Using inotify-tools (Linux)
while inotifywait -e modify schemas/*.wings; do
    wings schemas/api.wings
done

# Using fswatch (macOS)
fswatch schemas/*.wings | xargs -n1 -I{} wings schemas/api.wings

Performance Considerations

Large Projects

  • Use langFilter to generate only needed languages for specific contexts
  • Set skipImport: true in config if you don't need imported file generation
  • Consider splitting large schema files into smaller, focused files

Incremental Builds

For better performance in large projects:

# Only regenerate if Wings files are newer than generated files
find schemas -name "*.wings" -newer src/generated/last_build && {
    wings schemas/api.wings
    touch src/generated/last_build
}