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Starting Out with Golden Paths

Golden Paths are templates for platforms, you use them to get together commonly used frameworks and tools and do away with the busy work of plugging things in. StartOut offers a helpful CLI for collecting and building these templates directly from the command line! To get started, use your favorite Python package manager to install startout-paths:

pip install startout-paths

Once the CLI is installed, you'll need to find the Path that you want to use (see 🟡this list for all the Paths officially supported by StartOut!). As an example, if you're interested in building a webapp, you might use the postgresql-express-react Path like so:

Note

See further documentation for more complex use of startout-paths

startout-paths postgresql-express-react my-new-webapp

After following the interactive process, the Path's Starterfile will be parsed and executed, then you're ready to start developing your shiny new webapp!

Security Advisory

Warning

Never execute code that you don't understand! With Golden Paths, simplicity comes at the cost of relatively unmonitored code execution. Always be sure that you know what scripts are being executed on your computer! Only use Paths from authors that you trust!

Opinionated Paths

Tip

Within an organization, it is advisable to use an "opinionated" design when possible. Opinionated design can be described as strongly suggesting the "right" way to do things, but it is importantly distinct from the "only" way to do things.

When an opinionated design is used, developers trade a small amount of freedom to choose (often arbitrarily or with bias) the tools/approach they use for the harmony of using the same tools/approach as their peers. This harmony is one of the major benefits of using opinionated Paths (in fact, Google cites it as number one on its list of Golden Path principles).