flutter
command-line tool for the Flutter UI framework
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
flutter command [options] [arguments]
DESCRIPTION
flutter is the command-line tool that drives the Flutter UI framework. It scaffolds projects, manages package dependencies through pub, runs builds for each supported platform, and orchestrates the developer loop including hot-reload and hot-restart during flutter run.A single Dart codebase compiles to native binaries for iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, Windows, and to JavaScript/WebAssembly for the web. The doctor subcommand inspects the host machine and reports missing prerequisites such as the Android SDK, Xcode, command-line tools, and the appropriate device emulators. flutter devices lists currently attached or running targets that flutter run can deploy to.
PARAMETERS
COMMAND
Operation: create, run, build, test, pub, etc.create NAME
Create new Flutter project.run
Run app on device/emulator.build TARGET
Build app (apk, ios, web).test
Run unit and widget tests.pub SUBCMD
Package management.doctor
Check environment setup.devices
List connected devices.--help
Display help information.
CAVEATS
Each target platform requires its native SDK on the host: Android SDK plus a JDK for Android, Xcode plus CocoaPods for iOS/macOS, Visual Studio for Windows, GTK/clang for Linux. Initial channel switches (flutter channel stable | beta | master) trigger a large download. flutter upgrade updates only the active channel; downgrading typically requires flutter downgrade or a fresh checkout of a specific tag.
HISTORY
Flutter was announced by Google at I/O 2017 and reached 1.0 in December 2018. The framework uses its own GPU-accelerated rendering engine (originally Skia, now also Impeller) instead of native widget toolkits, which is what gives it identical appearance across platforms. Dart 3 brought sound null safety and patterns to the toolchain.
SEE ALSO
dart(1), flutter-pub(1), adb(1), xcrun(1)
