hdoc-tools

Hornbill HDocBook Development Support Tool.

Usage

hdoc argument switches

Arguments

The arguments available to this command-line tool are as follows.

help

Outputs available arguments and switches.

init

Initializes a new HDocBook project from a template, using runtime input variables.

createDocs

Creates folder structure and markdown documents as defined in the HDocBook navigation item links

stats

Returns statistics regarding the book you are working on:

• Document ID
• Version
• Title
• Description
• Public Source
• Total Book Word Count
• Number of Markdown Files in the Book
• Number of Static HTML Files in the Book

If the -v switch is provided, then more verbose output is output, which includes a list of each MD and HTML file found, the file sizes, and file-specific word count.

The book statistics do not include counts for any externally hosted content injected into the book content using the [[INCLUDE]] tags.

build

Performs a local build of the book, validates the links and static content are present and correct and outputs as a ZIP file.

If the -v switch is provided, then a more verbose output is provided, which includes a list of all HTML files created and checked for embedded links and static content.

Use the --set-version argument to set the version number of the built book.

Use the --no-color argument to remove any color control characters from the output.

Use the --no-links argument to skip link output to CLI during validation.

validate

Performs a minimum local build of the book, then validates the links and static content are present and correct.

If the -v switch is provided, then a more verbose output is provided, which includes a list of all HTML files created and checked for embedded links and static content.

Use the --set-version argument to set the version number of the built book.

Use the --no-color argument to remove any color control characters from the output.

Use the --no-links argument to skip link output to CLI during validation.

serve

Starts a local web server on port 3000, serving the book content.

To preview the documentation in a browser, you can open a terminal window and run the dev preview server with the command hdoc serve and in a local browser go to the URL http://localhost:3000

Installation

npm install hdoc-tools -g

Releasing

Releases are fully automated via GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/release.yml):

1. Add a ## [X.Y.Z] section for the new version at the top of CHANGELOG.md.
2. Bump version in package.json to match.
3. Push (or merge) to main.

The workflow detects the new version (no vX.Y.Z tag yet), publishes to npm using trusted publishing (OIDC — no npm tokens), creates the git tag and GitHub Release with the changelog section as notes, and announces the release in the Hornbill workspace. Pushes to main without a version bump do nothing. Re-running a failed workflow is safe — each step is guarded by what already exists on npm and in tags.