gatsby-cli

What is gatsby-cli?

The gatsby-cli npm package is a command-line interface tool for creating, developing, and managing Gatsby sites. It provides a range of commands to streamline the development process, from setting up new projects to deploying them.

What are gatsby-cli's main functionalities?

Create a new Gatsby site

This command initializes a new Gatsby site in a directory called 'my-gatsby-site'. It sets up the necessary files and dependencies to get started with a Gatsby project.

gatsby new my-gatsby-site

Develop a Gatsby site

This command starts a local development server and watches for changes in your Gatsby site. It provides hot-reloading and a GraphQL data layer for building and testing your site locally.

gatsby develop

Build a Gatsby site

This command generates a production-ready static site. It compiles your site into static files that can be deployed to any web server.

gatsby build

Serve a Gatsby site

This command starts a local server to serve the production build of your site. It is useful for testing the final output before deploying it.

gatsby serve

Clean Gatsby cache

This command deletes the .cache and public directories. It is useful for troubleshooting and ensuring a clean build environment.

gatsby clean

Other packages similar to gatsby-cli

create-react-app

Create React App is a command-line tool to set up a new React project with a single command. It provides a similar experience to gatsby-cli but is focused on React applications rather than static site generation.

next

Next.js is a React framework that provides a CLI for creating and managing projects. It offers server-side rendering and static site generation, making it a versatile alternative to Gatsby for building modern web applications.

vue-cli

Vue CLI is a command-line tool for scaffolding Vue.js projects. It offers a similar set of features to gatsby-cli but is tailored for Vue.js applications, including project creation, development server, and build commands.

README

gatsby-cli

The Gatsby command line interface (CLI). It is used to perform common functionality, such as creating a Gatsby application based on a starter, spinning up a hot-reloading local development server, and more!

Lets you create new Gatsby apps using Gatsby starters. It also lets you run commands on sites. The tool runs code from the gatsby package installed locally.

The Gatsby CLI (gatsby-cli) is packaged as an executable that can be used globally. The Gatsby CLI is available via npm and is installed globally by running npm install -g gatsby-cli.

You can also use the package.json script variant of these commands, typically exposed for you with most starters. For example, if we want to make the gatsby develop command available in our application, we would open up package.json and add a script like so:

{
  "scripts": {
    "develop": "gatsby develop"
  }
}

CLI Commands

All the following documentation is available in the tool by running gatsby --help.

1. new
2. develop
3. build
4. serve
5. clean
6. plugin
7. info
8. repl

new

gatsby new [<site-name> [<starter-url>]]

Argument	Description
site-name	Your Gatsby site name, which is also used to create the project directory.
starter-url	A Gatsby starter URL or local file path. Defaults to gatsby-starter-default; see the Gatsby starters docs for more information.

Note: The site-name should only consist of letters and numbers. If you specify a ., ./ or a <space> in the name, gatsby new will throw an error.

Examples

• Create a Gatsby site named my-awesome-site, using the default starter:

gatsby new my-awesome-site

• Create a Gatsby site named my-awesome-blog-site, using gatsby-starter-blog:

gatsby new my-awesome-blog-site https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby-starter-blog

• If you leave out both of the arguments, the CLI will run an interactive shell asking for these inputs:

gatsby new
? What is your project called? › my-gatsby-project
? What starter would you like to use? › - Use arrow-keys. Return to submit.
❯  gatsby-starter-default
   gatsby-starter-hello-world
   gatsby-starter-blog
   (Use a different starter)

See the Gatsby starters docs for more details.

develop

At the root of a Gatsby app run gatsby develop to start the Gatsby development server.

Options

Option	Description	Default
-H, --host	Set host.	env.GATSBY_HOST or localhost
-p, --port	Set port.	env.PORT or 8000
-o, --open	Open the site in your (default) browser for you
-S, --https	Use HTTPS

Follow the Local HTTPS guide to find out how you can set up an HTTPS development server using Gatsby.

build

At the root of a Gatsby app run gatsby build to do a production build of a site.

Options

Option	Description	Default
--prefix-paths	Build site with link paths prefixed (set pathPrefix in your config)	env.PREFIX_PATHS or false
--no-uglify	Build site without uglifying JS bundles (for debugging)	false
--profile	Build site with react profiling. See https://www.gatsbyjs.org/docs/profiling-site-performance-with-react-profiler/	false
--open-tracing-config-file	Tracer configuration file (OpenTracing compatible). See https://www.gatsbyjs.org/docs/performance-tracing/
--no-color, --no-colors	Disables colored terminal output	false

For prefixing paths, most will want to use the CLI flag (gatsby build --prefix-paths). For environments where you can't pass the --prefix-paths flag (ie Gatsby Cloud), the environment variable PREFIX_PATHS can be set to true to provide another way to prefix paths.

serve

At the root of a Gatsby app run gatsby serve to serve the production build of the site

Options

Option	Description	Default
-H, --host	Set host. Defaults to localhost
-p, --port	Set port. Defaults to 9000
-o, --open	Open the site in your (default) browser for you
--prefix-paths	Serve site with link paths prefixed (if built with pathPrefix in your gatsby-config.js).	env.PREFIX_PATHS or false

For prefixing paths, most will want to use the CLI flag (gatsby build --prefix-paths). For environments where you can't pass the --prefix-paths flag (ie Gatsby Cloud), the environment variable PREFIX_PATHS can be set to true to provide another way to prefix paths.

clean

At the root of a Gatsby app run gatsby clean to wipe out the cache (.cache folder) and public directories. This is useful as a last resort when your local project seems to have issues or content does not seem to be refreshing. Issues this may fix commonly include:

• Stale data, e.g. this file/resource/etc. isn't appearing
• GraphQL error, e.g. this GraphQL resource should be present but is not
• Dependency issues, e.g. invalid version, cryptic errors in console, etc.
• Plugin issues, e.g. developing a local plugin and changes don't seem to be taking effect

plugin

Run commands pertaining to gatsby plugins.

docs

gatsby plugin docs

Directs you to documentation about using and creating plugins.

info

At the root of a Gatsby site run gatsby info to get helpful environment information which will be required when reporting a bug.

Options

Option	Description	Default
-C, --clipboard	Automagically copy environment information to clipboard	false

repl

Get a node repl with context of Gatsby environment