Anvil

Anvil scaffolds PowerShell module projects with a working build pipeline, test infrastructure, linting, and CI/CD. It also provides commands for adding functions, classes, and dependencies as you develop.

Installation

Install-Module -Name Anvil -Scope CurrentUser

Requires PowerShell 7.2 or later. Modules you build can target any version down to 5.1.

Create a module

New-AnvilModule -Interactive

This walks you through naming the module, choosing a CI provider, selecting a license, and configuring build options. When it finishes, you have a complete project that builds, lints, tests, and packages out of the box:

cd MyModule
Invoke-AnvilBootstrapDeps
Invoke-AnvilBuild

For scripted or CI-driven usage, pass parameters directly:

$Params = @{
    Name            = 'NetworkTools'
    DestinationPath = '~/Projects'
    Author          = 'Jane Doe'
    CIProvider      = 'GitHub'
    GitInit         = $true
}
New-AnvilModule @Params

Project structure

NetworkTools/
├── src/NetworkTools/          Module source (Public/, Private/, PrivateClasses/)
├── build/                     InvokeBuild pipeline, bootstrap, settings
├── tests/                     Pester 5 unit and integration tests
├── docs/                      Documentation
├── requirements.psd1          Module dependencies
├── .github/workflows/         CI/CD (or Azure Pipelines / GitLab CI)
├── PSScriptAnalyzerSettings.psd1
├── .editorconfig, .vscode/
├── README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, LICENSE
└── .gitignore

The build pipeline handles formatting, linting, unit tests with code coverage, module compilation into a single distributable file, integration tests, and packaging. Build dependencies are bootstrapped automatically — nothing to install manually beyond Anvil itself.

CI/CD workflows are included for GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, or GitLab CI, with tag-triggered releases to the PowerShell Gallery.

Developing with Anvil

After scaffolding, Anvil provides commands for common tasks:

New-AnvilFunction -FunctionName 'Get-Widget' -Scope Public    # creates function + test
New-AnvilFunction -FunctionName 'Format-Row' -Scope Private   # internal helper + test
New-AnvilClass -ClassName 'WidgetResult'                      # class + test
Add-AnvilDependency -Name 'Az.Storage' -Version '>=5.0.0'    # adds to manifest + requirements
Import-AnvilModule                                            # reload for interactive testing

Custom templates

Anvil's scaffolding is driven by a manifest-based template system. You can create your own templates with custom parameters, conditions, and file structures. See Template Authoring.

Documentation

Getting Started	Scaffold a project, bootstrap, first build
Reference	Project structure, build pipeline, CI/CD, customization
Template Authoring	Creating custom templates
Command Reference	Detailed help for all commands
FAQ	Troubleshooting

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

MIT

Acknowledgements

Anvil builds on and is inspired by the work of these projects:

Project	License	Role
Catesta	MIT	Inspiration for Anvil's design
InvokeBuild	Apache 2.0	Build pipeline engine
ModuleFast	MIT	Dependency bootstrapping
Pester	Apache 2.0	Test framework
PSScriptAnalyzer	MIT	Linting and formatting
PSResourceGet	MIT	Module publishing
platyPS	MIT	Documentation generation
Indented.ScriptAnalyzerRules	MIT	Custom PSScriptAnalyzer rules