cppseed

cppseed 🌱 grow clean and modern C++23 projects, not boilerplate.

A lean C++23 project template for Linux with fast builds, testing, and a simple developer workflow.

Linux-only (tested on Ubuntu 24.04).

Quick start

# Clone the repository
git clone <your-repo> && cd cppseed

# Set up the 'dev' helper (adds a local shim)
./scripts/setup.sh

# Install system dependencies (first time only)
dev install

# Build everything (Release) or iterate fast (Debug)
dev release
# or
dev debug

# Run an app from src/apps (auto-builds on first run)
dev run example

What’s inside

• C++23, CMake + Ninja
• Strict warnings for apps: -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Werror
• doctest via CMake FetchContent (auto-fetched)
• Auto-discovered targets:
  • Apps: every src/apps/*.cpp becomes an executable
  • Tests: every tests/test_*.cpp becomes a test executable
• Dev helpers: one-liner builds, tests, formatting, lint
• clang-format, clangd-friendly setup

Focus mode (VS Code)

For VS Code users: dev focus hides build/config files in the Explorer to reduce noise; dev config shows them again. These commands toggle the files.exclude section in .vscode/settings.json and don’t affect the actual build.

dev focus   # hide build/config files in VS Code
dev config  # show them again

VS Code tasks

This repo includes tasks for a smooth loop:

• build-debug / build-release
• build-debug-current
• run-current (runs the currently open app/test file)
• run-tests
• format-code / lint-code
• clean-build

Commands

Command	What it does
dev debug [target]	Build Debug (target must match a file in src/apps, or all)
dev release [target]	Build Release (target must match a file in src/apps, or all)
dev run [target]	Run an app. If the executable is missing, it configures Debug and builds the target, then runs it.
dev test	Build (Debug) and run tests with ctest
dev format [scope]	Format code with clang-format (all/src/include/path)
dev lint [scope]	Run diagnostics via clangd-tidy
dev clean	Remove the build dir and tooling cache
dev all	Clean, build (Release), run tests, format
dev install	Install system dependencies (Ubuntu 24.04)
dev focus / dev config	Toggle visibility of build/config files in VS Code

Notes:

• dev run will try to build missing targets in Debug automatically.
• When no target is provided and only one app exists, dev run will run that single app.

Structure

• src/apps/ — application entry points (each *.cpp becomes an executable)
• include/ — public headers
• tests/ — test files (test_*.cpp)
• scripts/ — developer helpers (dev.sh, setup)
• build/ — build output (ignored)

Add a new app

Drop a file in src/apps/ and it becomes a runnable target:

// src/apps/hello.cpp
#include <print>

int main() {
	std::println("Hello from cppseed!");
	return 0;
}

Build and run it:

dev debug hello
dev run hello

Tests

Add test files as tests/test_*.cpp (doctest is already available). Run:

dev test