Makefile Generation Skill

Generate a Makefile with standard development targets for Python, Rust, or TypeScript projects.

When To Use

• Need a Makefile for a project without one
• Want to update Makefile with new targets
• Standardizing build automation across projects
• Setting up development workflow commands
• Creating language-specific build targets

When NOT To Use

• Makefile already exists and is current
• Project uses alternative build system exclusively (e.g., npm scripts only)
• Complex custom build process that doesn't fit standard patterns
• Use /attune:upgrade-project instead for updating existing Makefiles

Standard Targets

Python Makefile

Common targets:

• help - Show available targets
• install - Install dependencies with uv
• lint - Run ruff linting
• format - Format code with ruff
• typecheck - Run mypy type checking
• test - Run pytest
• test-coverage - Run tests with coverage report
• check-all - Run all quality checks
• clean - Remove generated files and caches
• build - Build distribution packages
• publish - Publish to PyPI

Rust Makefile

Common targets:

• help - Show available targets
• fmt - Format with rustfmt
• lint - Run clippy
• check - Cargo check
• test - Run tests
• build - Build release binary
• clean - Clean build artifacts

TypeScript Makefile

Common targets:

• help - Show available targets
• install - Install npm dependencies
• lint - Run ESLint
• format - Format with Prettier
• typecheck - Run tsc type checking
• test - Run Jest tests
• build - Build for production
• dev - Start development server

Workflow

1. Detect Language

# Check for language indicators
if [ -f "pyproject.toml" ]; then
    LANGUAGE="python"
elif [ -f "Cargo.toml" ]; then
    LANGUAGE="rust"
elif [ -f "package.json" ]; then
    LANGUAGE="typescript"
fi

Verification: Run the command with --help flag to verify availability.

2. Load Template

from pathlib import Path

template_path = Path("plugins/attune/templates") / language / "Makefile.template"

Verification: Run the command with --help flag to verify availability.

3. Collect Project Info

metadata = {
    "PROJECT_NAME": "my-project",
    "PROJECT_MODULE": "my_project",
    "PYTHON_VERSION": "3.10",
}

Verification: Run the command with --help flag to verify availability.

4. Render Template

from template_engine import TemplateEngine

engine = TemplateEngine(metadata)
engine.render_file(template_path, Path("Makefile"))

Verification: Run the command with --help flag to verify availability.

5. Verify

make help

Verification: Run make --dry-run to verify build configuration.

Customization

Users can add custom targets after the generated ones:

# ============================================================================
# CUSTOM TARGETS
# ============================================================================

deploy: build ## Deploy to production
	./scripts/deploy.sh

Verification: Run the command with --help flag to verify availability.

Related Skills

• Skill(attune:project-init) - Full project initialization
• /abstract:make-dogfood command - Makefile testing and validation

Exit Criteria

• A Makefile is created at the project root containing at minimum a help target and all standard targets for the detected language (Python: install/lint/format/typecheck/test; Rust: fmt/lint/check/test/build; TypeScript: install/lint/format/typecheck/test/build).
• make help runs without error and lists all generated targets with descriptions.
• make --dry-run <target> exits 0 for each standard target, confirming recipe syntax is valid.
• If no language is detected (no pyproject.toml, Cargo.toml, or package.json), the skill reports the detection failure and stops rather than generating a blank Makefile.