Lowdefy CLI

The Lowdefy CLI is used to develop a Lowdefy app locally, and to build Lowdefy apps for deployment.

We recommend running the CLI using npx, to always use the latest version:

npx lowdefy@latest <command>

or, to use a specific version:

npx lowdefy@version <command>

Alternative, you can install the CLI globally or to a npm project (with a package.json file) via npm or yarn.

To install the CLI globally run:

npm install lowdefy -g

The CLI can then be run using lowdefy as the executable name:

lowdefy <command>

CLI commands

build

The build command runs a Lowdefy build. The options are:

• --base-directory <base-directory>: Change base directory. The default is the current working directory.
• --blocks-server-url <blocks-server-url>: The URL from where Lowdefy blocks will be served.
• --disable-telemetry: Disable telemetry.
• --output-directory <output-directory>: Change the directory to which build artifacts are saved. The default is <base-directory>/.lowdefy/build.
• --ref-resolver <ref-resolver-function-path>: Path to a JavaScript file containing a _ref resolver function to be used as the app default _ref resolver.

build-netlify

The build-netlify command creates a production build for the Netlify web hosting service. It is designed to run as the Netlify build command.

We recommend setting the build command to npx lowdefy@latest build-netlify. The Netlify publish directory should be set to .lowdefy/publish, and the functions directory set to .lowdefy/functions.

• --base-directory <base-directory>: Change base directory. The default is the current working directory (The base directory should rather be configured in the Netlify build settings).
• --blocks-server-url <blocks-server-url>: The URL from where Lowdefy blocks will be served.
• --disable-telemetry: Disable telemetry.
• --ref-resolver <ref-resolver-function-path>: Path to a JavaScript file containing a _ref resolver function to be used as the app default _ref resolver.

clean-cache

The Lowdefy CLI caches block metadata, and build and server scripts in the .lowdefy/cache directory. These cached files can be removed using the clean-cache command.

• --base-directory <base-directory>: Change base directory. The default is the current working directory.
• --disable-telemetry: Disable telemetry.

dev

The dev command starts a Lowdefy development server, running locally. It can be accessed in a browser at http://localhost:3000. The CLI watches the file system, and rebuilds the app and reloads served pages every time a change is made to any of the files in the project directory.

• --base-directory <base-directory>: Change base directory. The default is the current working directory.
• --blocks-server-url <blocks-server-url>: The URL from where Lowdefy blocks will be served.
• --disable-telemetry: Disable telemetry.
• --port <port>: Change the port the server is hosted at. The default is 3000.
• --ref-resolver <ref-resolver-function-path>: Path to a JavaScript file containing a _ref resolver function to be used as the app default _ref resolver.
• --watch <paths...>: A list of paths to files or directories that should be watched for changes.
• --watch-ignore <patterns...>: A list of paths to files or directories that should be ignored by the file watcher. Globs are supported.

Examples

Run the dev server, watching a relative directory for file changes:

npx lowdefy@latest dev --watch ../other-project

Run the dev server, ignoring the public directory:

npx lowdefy@latest dev --watch-ignore public/**

Configuration

All the CLI options can either be set as command line options, or the cli config object in your lowdefy.yaml file. Options set as command line options take precedence over options set in the lowdefy.yaml file. The config in the lowdefy.yaml cannot be referenced using the _ref operator, but need to be set in the file itself.

Options set in the lowdefy.yaml should be defined in camelCase. The options that can be set are:

• blocksServerUrl: string: The URL from where Lowdefy blocks will be served.
• disableTelemetry: boolean: Disable telemetry.
• outputDirectory: string: Change the directory to which build artifacts are saved. The default is <base-directory>/.lowdefy/build.
• refResolver: string: Path to a JavaScript file containing a _ref resolver function to be used as the app default _ref resolver.
• port: number: Change the port the server is hosted at. The default is 3000.
• watch: string[]: A list of paths to files or directories that should be watched for changes.
• watchIgnore: string[]: A list of paths to files or directories that should be ignored by the file watcher. Globs are supported.

The --base-directory option cannot be set from the lowdefy.yaml file.

Telemetry

The CLI collects usage and error information to help us fix bugs, prioritize features, and understand how Lowdefy is being used.

All telemetry can be disabled by setting the disableTelemetry flag in cli config object in your lowdefy.yaml file (this cannot be a reference to another file), or by using the --disable-telemetry command line flag.:

lowdefy.yaml

lowdefy: LOWDEFY_VERSION

cli:
  disableTelemetry: true

We collect the following information:

• The CLI version.
• The Lowdefy version of your app.
• A random local app id (stored locally in your project folder at .lowdefy/cli.json).
• The CLI command used.
• If the CLI is being used in the Netlify CI environment (when using the build-netlify command).
• Your IP address.
• Error messages and stack traces for any errors.

More Lowdefy resources

• Getting started with Lowdefy - https://docs.lowdefy.com/tutorial-start
• Lowdefy docs - https://docs.lowdefy.com
• Lowdefy website - https://lowdefy.com
• Community forum - https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy/discussions
• Bug reports and feature requests - https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy/issues

Licence

Apache-2.0