Nehonix QuickDev

A professional-grade file watcher and development server for TypeScript/JavaScript applications. This tool is designed as a high-performance alternative to nodemon, specifically optimized for modern Node.js/TypeScript applications with advanced features not found in other reloaders.

Designed for fortify2-js server but can be used in other applications

Features

Core Capabilities

• High-performance file watching and reloading
• Intelligent TypeScript/JavaScript detection and handling
• Advanced project configuration detection
• Sophisticated file system monitoring
• Production-grade process management
• Professional CLI interface with color-coded output

Advanced Features

Smart Process Management

• Graceful shutdown with configurable timeout
• Process restart statistics and history
• Maximum restart limits with auto-reset
• Configurable restart delay
• Environment variable preservation

Advanced File Watching

• File hashing for precise change detection
• Batch processing of file changes
• Polling and filesystem event support
• Symlink following capability
• Custom ignore patterns via file

Performance Optimization

• Parallel file processing
• Memory usage monitoring and limits
• File size restrictions
• Efficient batch change processing
• Smart event debouncing

Health Monitoring

• Process health checks
• Memory usage tracking
• Restart statistics
• Error tracking and history
• Performance metrics

Installation

Option 1: Install via npm (Recommended)

npm install -g nquickdev

Option 2: Install via Go

1. Make sure you have Go installed (version 1.21 or higher)
2. Install using Go:

   go install github.com/nehonix/quickdev@latest

   Or build from source:

   git clone https://github.com/nehonix/quickdev.git
   cd quickdev
   go build -o quickdev

Configuration

quickdev supports multiple ways to configure its behavior:

1. Configuration File

Create a quickdev.config.json (or .quickdevrc.json) in your project root:

{
  "script": "src/server.ts",
  "watch": ["src", "config"],
  "ignore": ["node_modules", "dist", "coverage"],
  "extensions": [".ts", ".js", ".jsx", ".tsx"],

  "gracefulShutdown": true,
  "gracefulShutdownTimeout": 5,
  "maxRestarts": 5,
  "resetRestartsAfter": 60000,
  "restartDelay": 100,

  "batchChanges": true,
  "batchTimeout": 300,
  "enableHashing": true,
  "usePolling": false,
  "pollingInterval": 100,
  "followSymlinks": false,
  "watchDotFiles": false,
  "ignoreFile": ".quickdevignore",

  "parallelProcessing": true,
  "memoryLimit": 500,
  "maxFileSize": 10,
  "excludeEmptyFiles": true,
  "debounceMs": 250,

  "healthCheck": true,
  "healthCheckInterval": 30,
  "clearScreen": true,

  "typescriptRunner": "tsx",
  "tsNodeFlags": "--esm"
}

Configuration Options

Core Settings

• script - Path to the script to run (required)
• watch - Directories to watch, array of paths
• ignore - Directories to ignore, array of paths
• extensions - File extensions to watch

Process Management

• gracefulShutdown - Enable graceful shutdown (default: true)
• gracefulShutdownTimeout - Graceful shutdown timeout in seconds (default: 5)
• maxRestarts - Maximum number of restarts (default: 5)
• resetRestartsAfter - Reset restart count after X milliseconds (default: 60000)
• restartDelay - Delay before restart in milliseconds (default: 100)

File Watching

• batchChanges - Enable batch processing of changes (default: true)
• batchTimeout - Batch timeout in milliseconds (default: 300)
• enableHashing - Enable file hashing for precise change detection (default: true)
• usePolling - Use polling instead of filesystem events (default: false)
• pollingInterval - Polling interval in milliseconds (default: 100)
• followSymlinks - Follow symbolic links (default: false)
• watchDotFiles - Watch dot files (default: false)
• ignoreFile - Path to custom ignore file

Performance

• parallelProcessing - Enable parallel processing (default: true)
• memoryLimit - Memory limit in MB (default: 500)
• maxFileSize - Maximum file size in MB (default: 10)
• excludeEmptyFiles - Exclude empty files (default: true)
• debounceMs - Debounce time in milliseconds (default: 250)

Monitoring

• healthCheck - Enable health checking (default: true)
• healthCheckInterval - Health check interval in seconds (default: 30)
• clearScreen - Clear screen on restart (default: true)

TypeScript Settings (leave blank to use default runner (recommanded))

• typescriptRunner - TypeScript execution engine to use ("tsx" or "ts-node", default: tries "tsx" first, then "ts-node")
• tsNodeFlags - Additional flags for the TypeScript runner (default: "--esm" for ts-node)

2. Ignore File

Create a .quickdevignore file to specify patterns to ignore:

# Comments are supported
*.log
*.tmp
temp/
**/*.test.js
coverage/
dist/
build/
.git/

3. Command Line Arguments

All configuration options can be overridden via command line arguments:

quickdev -script server.js \
  --watch="src,config" \
  --ignore="node_modules,dist" \
  --ext=".ts,.js"

Command line arguments take precedence over configuration file settings.

Configuration Priority

quickdev uses the following priority order when loading configuration:

1. Command line arguments (highest priority)
2. quickdev.config.json or .quickdevrc.json
3. .quickdevignore file
4. Default values (lowest priority)

TypeScript Support

quickdev provides robust TypeScript support with configurable execution options:

TypeScript Runner Selection

You can specify your preferred TypeScript runner in the config:

{
  "typescriptRunner": "tsx", // or "ts-node"
  "tsNodeFlags": "--esm" // or any other flags you need
}

The runner selection follows this order:

1. Uses the specified typescriptRunner if configured
2. Falls back to tsx if available
3. Falls back to ts-node if available
4. Fails if no TypeScript runner is found

TypeScript Flags

• For tsx: Pass any additional flags via tsNodeFlags
• For ts-node: Default flags are --esm, can be overridden via tsNodeFlags

Example with custom flags:

{
  "typescriptRunner": "ts-node",
  "tsNodeFlags": "--esm --transpileOnly --compilerOptions '{\"module\":\"ESNext\"}'"
}

Usage Examples

Basic Usage

quickdev -script your-script.js

Advanced Usage

quickdev -script server.js \
  --watch="src,config" \
  --ignore="node_modules,dist,coverage" \
  --ext=".ts,.js,.jsx,.tsx" \
  --batch=true \
  --hash=true \
  --health=true \
  --graceful=true

Command Line Options

Core Options

• -script - Path to the script to run (required)
• -watch - Directories to watch, comma-separated (default: ".")
• -ignore - Directories to ignore, comma-separated (default: "node_modules,dist,.git")
• -ext - File extensions to watch (default: ".js,.ts,.jsx,.tsx")

Process Management

• -graceful - Enable graceful shutdown (default: true)
• -graceful-timeout - Graceful shutdown timeout in seconds (default: 5)
• -max-restarts - Maximum number of restarts (default: 0 = unlimited)
• -reset-after - Reset restart count after X milliseconds (default: 60000)
• -restart-delay - Delay before restart in milliseconds (default: 100)

File Watching

• -batch - Enable batch processing of changes (default: true)
• -batch-timeout - Batch timeout in milliseconds (default: 300)
• -hash - Enable file hashing for precise change detection (default: true)
• -polling - Use polling instead of filesystem events (default: false)
• -polling-interval - Polling interval in milliseconds (default: 100)
• -follow-symlinks - Follow symbolic links (default: false)
• -watch-dot - Watch dot files (default: false)
• -ignore-file - Path to custom ignore file

Performance

• -parallel - Enable parallel processing (default: true)
• -memory - Memory limit in MB (default: 500)
• -max-size - Maximum file size in MB (default: 10)
• -exclude-empty - Exclude empty files (default: true)
• -debounce - Debounce time in milliseconds (default: 250)

Monitoring

• -health - Enable health checking (default: true)
• -health-interval - Health check interval in seconds (default: 30)
• -clear - Clear screen on restart (default: true)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.