Using the Flask CLI

| programming | python |

Who knew that flask had a cli? Previously I used to just use manage.py just like Django does it to “do stuff”. The CLI is great, but again it follows the theme of kind of wanting you to install your flask app. (I really should do this). So in order to get your app to work you must point the FLASK_APP variable to the actual python file (not your app module). This is true even if you have a true python module. For instance.

export FLASK_APP = blog/blog.py
flask run
Works, while
export FLASK_APP = blog
flask run
Does not. Even though blog consists of:
blog/
  __init__.py
  blog.py

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

“From digital mischief to outright destruction”

The 1980s and 1990s PC viruses were a special breed. The MS-DOS operating system wasn’t particularly secure – few home computer operating systems were back then – so viruses could spread quickly, and many did. Some of the viruses focused more on actually w...

via Unsung November 11, 2026

The villa of Ormen

As a child, I was never a fan of any actor or singer. David Bowie is the closest thing to a “music idol” I’ve ever had. I never had a poster of him on my wall, or a T-shirt with his face on it, but he was a constant presence in my playlists, to the point w...

via Personal Site of Andrei N. Ciobanu November 11, 2026

Candidate Statement for the 2026 W3C TAG Election

Group photo of the W3C TAG in July 2022 with me to the left of Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web and TAG chair emeritus). Photo credit: Dan Appelquist I had the great honor of being elected to the TAG by the W3C membership in 2020 and again in 2022,...

via Lea Verou’s blog November 11, 2026

Generated by openring