laikacli

The Laika CMS command-line interface. One npm name, two bins for the same entry point:

• laikacli — canonical; matches the package name, so npx laikacli / pnpm dlx laikacli just work.
• laika — short alias once the package is installed.

Why not publish as laika? That npm name is taken by an unrelated (abandoned) package. Bin names, however, are per-package — so the short command is still ours.

Install

pnpm add -D laikacli   # or npm i -D / yarn add -D

Then:

laika create                      # wizard: starter, directory, title, CMS + its backends/widgets/locales
laika local serve                 # start the local-file JSON:API storage server
laika local generate              # config.yaml -> typed config.gen.ts (add --watch to keep it fresh)
laika local migrate -s ./a -d ./b # copy a storage repository to another backend
laika local list-backends         # show every registered storage backend

Or one-off without installing:

npx laikacli local serve
pnpm dlx laikacli local serve

Commands

All local-file dev tooling lives under the local namespace; the top level is reserved for future non-local commands.

| Command | What it does | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | create | Wizard that bootstraps a starter app and generates its src/cms.ts from your backend/widget/locale selection | | local serve | Local-file JSON:API storage server for dev workflows (--root, --port, --host, --default-extension (default: md), --auth-token) | | local generate | Generate a typed TypeScript module from the CMS config file (--cms, default Decap's config.yaml) | | local migrate | Copy every atom from one storage repository to another (fs, webdav, s3, github, gitlab, bitbucket, …) | | local list-backends | List every registered storage backend and its pinned package version |

Run laika local <command> --help for the full flag reference.

create — the wizard

laika create is the supported way to start a LaikaCMS app — always go through it rather than copying a starter folder. On a terminal it walks through every choice: the starter template, target directory, site title, package manager, and — because every starter boots the bare, non-laika Decap app (@laikacms/decap-cms/laika-app/bare) with nothing pre-registered — which CMS backends, widgets, and extra admin UI locales to install. The selection is written to the generated app's src/cms.ts; re-run the wizard or edit that file to change it later.

Each prompt can be pre-answered with a flag, which also makes the command scriptable:

laika create --directory ./my-blog --title "My Blog" \
  --backends laika --widgets string,datetime,richtext --locales nl,de
laika create --yes   # accept all defaults, no prompts (also the no-TTY behavior)

Which CMS

The admin UI is a plug-in choice, selected with --cms. Decap is the only one today, so the wizard skips the question and uses it — the same way it skips the starter question while one starter is enabled. Each CMS owns its own catalogs, so --backends, --widgets, and --locales are always read against the selected CMS, and laika local generate reads that CMS's config format.

Adding one means writing a sibling of src/cms/decap.ts that implements CmsAdapter (src/cms/types.ts) and listing it in src/cms/registry.ts; nothing outside that folder knows what a Decap import looks like. Note that a CMS backend (a content source the admin UI talks to) is a different axis from a storage backend (local migrate, local list-backends).

Programmatic API

Everything the CLI does is also exported from the package root (layerStorageServer, generateConfig, runMigrate, the storage driver registry, and the make*Command factories for embedding the subcommands in another Effect CLI):

import { layerStorageServer } from 'laikacli';

This package supersedes @laikacms/local, which is deprecated.