When I start a new project, I want the public folder to be called web, and the app folder to be called private, as these are the defaults set up by ISPConfig for a new web site. "app" is hard coded into the phalcon-devtools. Additional project options are suggested --public-dir web --private-dir private. This might be substituted in the config.ini. As it is , I am just going to change the hardcoded values in my copy of the devtools scripts.
This forum lets me write something for 20 minutes, try and post it, and then it tells me I am not logeed in. So for the second time I am typing that I would prefer that ../app/ be not hard coded in devtools, but be replaced by something like APP_PATH or $config->app_path, which can be set to whatever, such as ../private/app/, so I can have the app folder inside private, alongside other important stuff, like vendor.
better write this on github to be taken in consideration on future releases. Otherwise it will get lost on all these topics
https://github.com/phalcon/phalcon-devtools/issues
P.S.: 20 minutes session is indeed a bit annoying. It happens to me a lot to write an answer and forget to submit.