> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://terraform-labs.gitbook.io/houston/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://terraform-labs.gitbook.io/houston/overview.md).

# Overview

A general how-to manual for onboarding new users

## A **development environment, testing framework and smart contract pipeline for Terra, aiming to make life as a Terra developer easier.**

**Houston is a development environment, testing framework and smart contract pipeline for Terra, aiming to make life as a Terra developer easier.**

With Houston, you get:

* Built-in smart contract compilation, linking, deployment and wasm binary management.
* Configurable build pipeline with support for custom build processes.
* Scriptable deployment & migrations framework.
* Network management for deploying to Terra's public & private networks.
* Instant rebuilding of webassembly binaries during development.

## Commands

Houston has four commands to support your smart contract development:

`init`: for project initialization

`compile`: for compiling contracts

`add`: for adding or downloading contract cargo projects

`migrate`: for executing migration scripts to deploy/interact with smart contracts

To get help on each command, run `houston help <command>`.