pjh - Package.json Help

Extremely lightweight (2.4kb) utility to generate help documentation for your package.json scripts.

Usage

Running pjh

npx pjh

Or with a help script ("help": "npx pjh") setup:

npm run help

Example output:

package.json for the example:

{
	...
	"scripts": {
		"start": "node dist/index.js #pjh starts the (built) application",
		"setup": "npm i && cd client && npm i && cd .. #pjh todo: document script",
		"build": "npm run build:client && npm run build:server #pjh builds client and server",
		"build:client": "mkdir -p dist && rm -rf dist/public && cd client && npm run build && mv build ../dist/public && cd .. #pjh runs client build and moves output to dist folder",
		"build:server": "tsc #pjh build typescript (outputs to dist folder)",
		"watch": "nodemon #pjh-ignore",
		"typescript": "node --inspect=5859 -r ts-node/register ./index.ts #pjh runs dev server w/ inspector for debugging",
		"test": "jest #pjh runs jest",
		"serve": "serve dist/public",
		"lint": "#pjh not yet implemented",
		"help": "npx pjh #pjh displays this help information"
	}
	...
}

Specifying Output

pjh outputs help documentation for your scripts in the order they appear in the "scripts" section of your package.json.

#pjh

Add "#pjh " to the end of a script in your package.json to add documentation for that script.

{
	"scripts": {
		"start": "node index.js #pjh runs the application"
	}
}

#pjh-ignore

Add "#pjh-ignore to the end of a script to hide it from the output when running pjh.

{
	"scripts": {
		"start": "node index.js #pjh-ignore",
		"test": "jest #pjh runs test suite"
	}
}

No documentaiton available

If a script does not specify either "#pjh" or a "#pjh-ignore", then pjh will output No documentation available for that script.

{
	"scripts": {
		"start": "node index.js",
		"test": "jest #pjh runs test suite"
	}
}

Grouping scripts

pjh will only insert one newline at the end of the documentaiton for a script if the script immediately following it includes a : in its name. This applies even if the following script has #pjh-ignore. This behavior will likely change in a future update.