🤖Barrelbot

The Automated barrel file manager

Recursively watches a folder and generates barrel files (What is a barrel file?)

• Install globally, run anywhere you want
• generates index.tsx files by default, use a flag for .ts, .js, .jsx

How to use

Install globally (or locally up to you)

npm i -g barrelbot

Then in your project, assuming you want to generate barrel files in /src:

barrelbot watch src

It ignores files that you would normally want to ignore based on . in the filename, e.g.:

• two or more dots e.g. foo.stories.js or bar.spec.ts
• starting with a dog e.g. .somedotfile

Option: --ext {js, jsx, ts, tsx}

By default barrelbot assumes you want to use and output a .tsx extension. you can configure this with a --extension or --ext flag:

barrelbot watch src --extension js

Option: --namespace {none, all, defaultOnly}

By default barrelbot assumes you export everything without a namespace, so it generates exports like:

// barrelbot watch myFolder
// index.js
export * from './foo';

However, many people understandably have different styles (open an issue if you have a strong opinion on what the default should be), so you can configure this with a --namespace or --n flag:

all:

// barrelbot watch myFolder --namespace all
// index.js
import * as foo from './foo';
export { foo };

defaultOnly:

// barrelbot watch myFolder --namespace defaultOnly
// index.js
export { default as foo } from './foo';

Visualizing what it does

Given a file structure like

- someFolder
- myWatchedFolder
  - components
    - Header
      - Logo.tsx
      - Title.tsx
      - Logo.test.tsx
    - Main.tsx
    - Button.tsx
    - Button.spec.ts
  - App.tsx
  - .somedotfile

When you run barrelbot watch myWatchedFolder, it results in:

- someFolder
- myWatchedFolder
  - components
    - Header
      - Logo.tsx
      - Title.tsx
      - Logo.test.tsx
      - index.tsx
    - Main.tsx
    - Button.tsx
    - Button.spec.ts
    - index.tsx
  - App.tsx
  - .somedotfile
  - index.tsx

while ignoring the *.test.tsx, *.spec.ts, and .somedotfile.

Tip!

Before running barrelbot, I advise committing your project to git first.

This way, if you run the bot and find barrel files that aren't generated to your liking, you can run git clean -f to remove them.

Plan

• interactive fix mode

currently the bot bails out whenever a noncompliant index.ts file is found. we can add ignore and skip semantics as well as an interactive fix method for easier onboarding.

Inspiration

https://github.com/bencoveney/barrelsby

how it differs:

• watch mode by default
• barrel file only for the files at every directory level, not one megafile