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All the benefits of npm scripts without the cost of a bloated package.json and limits of json
Simplify and empower npm scripts with p-s 11:19
Even though npm scripts have a ton of advantages (learn more), it can grow into an
unmaintainable mess in your package.json file. Part of the problem is we're configuring scripts in json
which has fundamental issues (like no comments).
Put all of your scripts in a file called package-scripts.js and use p-s in a single package.json script:
package.json
{
"scripts": {
"start": "package-scripts"
}
}
package-scripts.js
module.exports = {
scripts: {
default: 'node index.js',
lint: 'eslint .',
test: {
default: 'ava',
watch: {
script: 'ava -w',
description: 'run in the amazingly intelligent AVA watch mode'
}
},
build: {
default: 'webpack',
prod: 'webpack -p',
},
validate: 'p-s --parallel lint,test,build',
},
}
Then you can run:
npm start # runs `node index.js`
npm start lint # runs `eslint .`
npm start test.watch # runs `ava -w`
npm start validate # runs the lint, test, and build scripts in parallel
But the fun doesn't end there! You can use a prefix:
npm start b # will run the build script
And these prefixes can go as deep as you like!
npm start b.p # will run the production build script
And if you want to speed things up even more, you can install npm-quick-run and then:
nr s build.prod
Cool stuff right? And there's more on the roadmap.
Also check out the examples. You'll find some good stuff in there (including how to deal with windows and other cross-platform issues).
Note: You don't have to use the start script if you don't want. If you're writing a node application, you're
likely using this for starting your server. In that case, you can create a default script which will be run when
p-s is run without arguments (so effectively it'll work just the same). But if you'd prefer, you can use whatever you
wish. For example you could easily create a p-s script and do: npm run p-s b.
This module is distributed via npm which is bundled with node and should
be installed as one of your project's devDependencies:
npm install --save-dev p-s
You can install this module globally also:
npm install --global p-s
From here you can use p-s on the command line via one of the installed aliases: p-s, package-scripts, or nps.
If you do this, you may also be interested in installing the shell autocompletion script. Do so by running:
nps completion <optionally-your-bash-profile-file>
The bash profile file defaults to ~/.bash_profile for bash and ~/.zshrc for zsh. Special thanks to the
omelette package for making this so easy.
If you're already using npm scripts, you can get up and going really quickly with the init command:
./node_modules/.bin/p-s init
This will use your package.json scripts to generate a package-scripts.js file and update your scripts to
utilize the package-scripts binary.
The CLI is fairly simple. It allows for a few options. The p-s binary is available in your node_modules/.bin
directory when you install it locally in a project so you can use it in your npm scripts. We also expose a
package-scripts alias binary so you can use that as well if you'd like the script to be more clear.
$ p-s --help
Usage: p-s [options]
Options:
-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
-s, --silent Silent p-s output
-p, --parallel <script-name1,script-name2> Scripts to run in parallel (comma seprated)
-c, --config <filepath> Config file to use (defaults to nearest package-scripts.js)
-l, --log-level <level> The log level to use (error, warn, info [default])
-r, --require <module> Module to preload
Available scripts (camel or kebab case accepted)
lint - Lint all files with eslint. Configuration is in package.json - eslint .
test - Run tests with AVA. See package.json for config - ava
test.watch - Run in the amazingly intelligent AVA watch mode - ava -w
build - The normal webpack UMD build for development - webpack
build.prod - The production webpack build - webpack -p
If you have a help script, then your help script will be run. Otherwise, this will output the help.
Note: you can do this with
p-s --help, but if you're using thestartscript in yourpackage.jsonthis allows you to runnpm start helprather thannpm start -- --help
As indicated above, this will migrate your npm scripts to package-scripts.
Installs autocompletion functionality into your default bash or zsh configuration. You can override the default by providing a specific file:
p-s completion ~/.bashrc
Note: you should probably only do this if you have the package installed globally. In that case you should probably also
normally use the nps alias rather than p-s because it's easier to type.
Will print out the help you see above (the available scripts are colored 🌈 and come from the config specified/default config).
By default, p-s will log out to the console before running the command. You can add -s to your command to silence
this.
Run the given scripts in parallel. This enables handy workflows like this:
npm start -p lint,build,cover && npm start check-coverage && npm start report-coverage
Use a different config
npm start -c ./other/package-scripts.js lint
Normally, p-s will look for a package-scripts.js file and load that to get the scripts. Generally you'll want to
have this at the root of your project (next to the package.json). But by specifying -c or --config, p-s will
use that file instead.
Specify the log level to use
You can specify a module which will be loaded before the config file is loaded. This allows you to preload for example babel-register so you can use all babel presets you like.
You can pass additional arguments to the script(s) that are being spawned:
npm start lint --fix # --fix will be passed on to the lint script
If you don't use -p (because you don't need parallelism) then you can simply provide the name of the script like so:
npm start cover
And you can run multiple scripts in series by providing a comma-separated list:
npm start cover,check-coverage
That's all for the CLI.
p-s expects to your package-scripts.js file to module.exports an object with the following properties:
This can be an object or a function that returns an object. See the annotated example below for what this object can look like (and different ways to run them):
module.exports = {
scripts: {
default: 'echo "This runs on `npm start`"', // npm start
// you can assign a script property to a string
simple: 'echo "this is easy"', // npm start simple
test: {
default: {
script: 'ava', // npm start test
description: 'Run tests with ava',
// your scripts will be run with node_modules/.bin in the PATH, so you can use locally installed packages.
// this is done in a cross-platform way, so your scripts will work on Mac and Windows :)
// NOTE: if you need to set environment variables, I recommend you check out the cross-env package, which works
// gret with p-s
},
otherStuff: {
// this one can be executed two different ways:
// 1. npm start test.otherStuff
// 2. npm start test.other-stuff
script: 'echo "testing other things"',
description: 'this is a handy description',
},
},
// this one can be executed a few different ways:
// 1. npm start k
// 2. npm start kebab-case
// 3. npm start kebabCase
'kebab-case': 'echo "kebab-case"',
series: 'p-s simple,test,kebabCase', // runs these other scripts in series
},
}
Remember, I find it considerably nicer to just use npm-quick-run and then I can do:
nr s k # runs npm start kebab-case
This object is used to configure p-s with the following options:
Setting this to true will prevent p-s from outputting anything for your script (normally you'll get simple output
indicating the command that's being executed). This effectively sets the logLevel to disable.
This sets the logLevel of p-s.
By setting LOG_LEVEL environment variable you can control the log level for p-s
Log levels available:
error - errors onlywarn - errors and warnings onlyinfo - info, errors, and warnings (default)npm start?Just to be clear: You do not have to use the start script. You can use whatever you like. But I recommend using
the start. npm scripts are generally run with npm run <script-name>. There are some exceptions to
this. For example:
npm run test === npm test === npm tnpm run start === npm startSo, while you could use a script called script and run npm run script build, I just think it reads more clearly to
just use the start script and run npm start build. It's also nice that it's fewer things to type. You could also use
the test script and then type even less: npm t build, but thats just... odd.
Note, often servers are configured to run npm start by default to start the server.
To allow for this case, you can provide a default script at the root of your scripts
which will be run when p-s is run without any arguments. Effectively this will
allow you to have a script run when npm start is executed.
This was inspired by a tweet by @sindresorhus.
react-component-template uses p-s to implement shareable npm scripts. See then how dependent react-swap can reuse them.
GOTCHAS:
process.cwd() as the base for all pathsHypercubed/EventsSpeedTests uses p-s to automate benchmark running and reporting in node and the browser. package-scripts.js enables us to keep our scripts DRY. Combined with grunion allows benchmarks to be run, serially or concurrently, on glob patterns.
SmithersAssistant/Smithers is an electron based personal assistant. Smithers works on multiple platforms. Smithers uses p-s to dynamically find the current platform and execute the dev environment. Now we don't have to manually update the package.json scripts when you are on a different platform!
Thanks goes to these people (emoji key):
 Kent C. Dodds 💻 📖 🚇 💡 📹 |  David Wells 💻 |  Abhishek Shende 💻 ⚠️ |  Rowan Oulton 💻 📖 ⚠️ |  Gilad Goldberg 💻 |  Tim McGee 💻 📖 |  Nik Butenko 💡 💻 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tommy 🐛 💻 ⚠️ |  Jayson Harshbarger 💡 |  JD Isaacks 💻 ⚠️ |
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!
MIT
FAQs
All the benefits of npm scripts without the cost of a bloated package.json and limits of json
We found that p-s demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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