WebMake CLI

WebMake CLI is a small local toolkit for static web projects. It provides a dev server with live reload, a simple production build command, and a project initializer.

Installation

npm install
npm link

After linking, the webmake command is available from your terminal.

Commands

webmake dev --dir=./public --watch=. --port=3000
webmake build --dir=./public --out=./dist
webmake init --name=my-site

Options

• --dir=./public: directory to serve or build.
• --out=./dist: build output directory.
• --port=3000: dev server port.
• --host=127.0.0.1: dev server host.
• --spa: serve index.html for unknown routes.
• --open: open the dev server in the default browser.
• --watch=.: directory watched recursively for live reload.
• --poll: use polling when native file events miss changes.
• --config=webmake.config.js: load defaults from a config file.

Friendly Errors

WebMake CLI validates user input before running commands. It prints readable messages for common problems like unknown options, missing config files, invalid ports, missing folders, invalid project names, busy ports, and non-empty init targets.

Cleaning Broken Build Outputs

If an older build created nested output folders like dist/dist/dist, use the Windows cleanup helper:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\clean-build-output.ps1 -Path "F:\path\to\your\site\dist"

The build command now excludes its own output folder, even when --out is inside --dir.

Netlify-style Routing

The dev server supports pretty URLs and basic Netlify redirects:

• /about serves /about.html when it exists.
• /docs serves /docs/index.html when it exists.
• _redirects rules like /login /auth/login.html 200 are loaded.
• netlify.toml [[redirects]] blocks with from, to, and status are loaded.
• A catch-all rule like /* /public/404.html 404 serves the custom 404 page.

Example _redirects:

/login /auth/login.html 200
/register /auth/register.html 200
/reset-password /auth/reset-password.html 200
/auth/callback /auth/callback.html 200
/account /account/index.html 200
/logout /public/logout.html 200
/* /public/404.html 404

Example netlify.toml:

[[redirects]]
  from = "/login"
  to = "/auth/login.html"
  status = 200

[[redirects]]
  from = "/*"
  to = "/public/404.html"
  status = 404

Config File

Create webmake.config.js at the project root:

module.exports = {
  dir: './public',
  out: './dist',
  port: 3000,
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  watch: '.',
  poll: false,
  spa: false,
};