cmdlook

Watch files and run commands when they change

A tiny file watcher that runs a command whenever files in a directory are updated. Perfect for development workflows where you need to automatically rebuild, test, or restart processes when source code changes.

Usage

You get one parameter to specify what to watch, the rest is your full command.

# Specify directory to watch all files recursively
cmdlook . bun test

# Use globs to be more specific
cmdlook "./**/*.{ts,tsx}" bun run build

# Remember globs are powerful
cmdlook "{src,test,styles}/**/*.{ts,tsx,css,js,jsx,tsx,ts}" bun run format

Install

Or install locally and use with bunx:

bun install cmdlook
# or
bunx cmdlook ./src bun run build

Usage

Just use the command line arguments as you would normally - don't put it all in quotes.

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Good to know

• If the command is currently running while files are being updated, it will run again after the current run is finished - but only once no matter how many files got updated.
• Press Ctrl+C to stop watching and exit cleanly

Features

• Directory watching for monitoring specified directories recursively
• Glob pattern support for using * and {} patterns to watch specific files
• Command queuing for preventing overlapping executions
• Clean exit for properly handling Ctrl+C
• Zero dependencies for lightweight and fast operation
• Bun optimization for using Bun.spawn for best performance

Glob Patterns

When the first parameter contains * or {, cmdlook treats it as a glob pattern:

• **/*.ts - All TypeScript files recursively
• *.{js,ts} - All JavaScript and TypeScript files in current directory
• src/**/*.css - All CSS files in src directory and subdirectories
• test/*.test.js - All test files in test directory

The tool automatically determines which directories to watch based on the matching files.

Note: Glob patterns are evaluated once at startup. New files that match the pattern created after cmdlook starts will not be detected until you restart cmdlook.

test