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:

• Identify the category of their request (site management, backup, database, etc.)

• Reference the appropriate section from references/ directory

• Provide the specific commands with the correct environment constants

• 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