Bench Commands

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for using the Frappe bench command-line interface in development environments, covering all aspects from site creation to production backup restoration.

Environment Constants

When working with bench commands, use these standard development environment values:

• Site Name: development.localhost
• Database Root Password: 123
• Admin Password: admin
• Bench Path: /workspace/development/frappe-bench

All commands assume execution from the bench directory unless otherwise specified.

Command Categories

Commands are organized by functional area. See the corresponding reference file for detailed information:

Site Management

See references/site-management.md for:

• Creating new sites
• Dropping sites (with automatic backup)
• Reinstalling sites
• Site configuration

App Management

See references/app-management.md for:

• Installing apps to sites
• Uninstalling apps from sites
• Getting apps from repositories
• Managing multiple apps

App Development

See references/app-development.md for:

• Creating new Frappe apps
• Managing app remotes
• Branch switching and management
• Dependency validation
• App development workflows

Backup and Restore

See references/backup-restore.md for:

• Creating full or database-only backups
• Restoring from production backups
• Handling encryption keys
• Backup file management

Database Operations

See references/database-operations.md for:

• Running migrations
• Executing specific patches
• Accessing database consoles
• MariaDB runtime configuration (memory limits, packet sizes)
• Performance tuning for large operations

Database Maintenance

See references/database-maintenance.md for:

• Removing deleted DocType tables and columns
• Table analysis and statistics
• Index management
• Database optimization

Development Operations

See references/development-operations.md for:

• Starting/stopping the development server
• Building assets
• Watching for changes
• Clearing caches
• Managing developer mode

Testing and Debugging

See references/testing-debugging.md for:

• Running test suites
• Running specific tests
• Using the Python console
• Executing Python code
• Code coverage

Job Queue Management

See references/job-queue.md for:

• Starting and managing workers
• Scheduler control
• Viewing pending jobs
• Queue diagnostics and troubleshooting

Translation Operations

See references/translation-operations.md for:

• Complete translation workflow (POT/PO/MO)
• CSV to PO migration
• Translation compilation
• Managing translations for multiple locales

Utilities

See references/utilities.md for:

• Setting/getting configuration values
• Managing the scheduler
• RQ job queue management (clearing jobs, purging queues)
• Reloading doctypes
• Resetting passwords
• Version checking
• System diagnostics

More Commands

See references/more-commands.md for:

• User management commands
• Data import/export operations
• Search and indexing
• Production setup commands
• NGINX and SSL configuration
• And many more specialized commands

Common Workflows

For complete step-by-step workflows, see references/workflows.md:

• Fresh Install: Complete setup from scratch
• Restore from Production: Migrating production backups to development
• Quick Reinstall: Reinstalling apps without dropping the site
• Large Database Restore: Configuring MariaDB for large backups

Usage

When a user asks about bench commands or needs help with Frappe development operations:

1. Identify the category of their request (site management, backup, database, etc.)
2. Reference the appropriate section from references/ directory
3. Provide the specific commands with the correct environment constants
4. Include important notes about prerequisites or side effects

Always ensure commands use the correct site name (development.localhost) and include necessary flags like --db-root-password when required.

Key Principles

• Always specify site name: Most commands require --site development.localhost
• Database root access: Use --db-root-password 123 for operations requiring database root access
• Developer mode: Enable for development work with bench --site development.localhost set-config developer_mode 1
• Cache clearing: After code or configuration changes, run bench clear-cache
• Migration after changes: Run bench --site development.localhost migrate after app installations or updates

Important Notes

• Backups are automatically created in ./sites/development.localhost/private/backups/ unless specified otherwise
• Runtime MariaDB settings (memory limits) are lost on container restart – add to docker-compose.yml to persist
• Database users are lost on MariaDB container restart – if you get “Access denied” errors, recreate the database user (see database-operations.md)
• When recreating a site, always set the encryption_key from backup before restoring data
• Use --skip-search-index flag with migrate for faster migrations during development