Commands (Gatsby CLI)
The Gatsby command line tool (CLI) is the main entry point for getting up and running with a Gatsby application and for using functionality including running a development server and building out your Gatsby application for deployment.
This page provides similar documentation as the gatsby-cli README. The Gatsby cheat sheet has docs for top CLI commands & APIs all ready to print out.
How to use gatsby-cli
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 you want to make the gatsby develop command available in your application, open up package.json and add a script like so:
API commands
All the following documentation is available in the tool by running gatsby --help.
new
Usage
The CLI will run an interactive shell asking for these options before creating a Gatsby site for you:
Creating a site from a starter
To create a site from a starter instead, run the command with your site name and starter URL:
Note that this will not prompt you to create a custom setup, but only clone the starter from the URL you specified.
Arguments
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| site-name | Your Gatsby site name, which is also used to create a 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-nameshould only consist of letters and numbers. If you specify a.,./or a<space>in the name,gatsby newwill throw an error.
Examples
- Create a Gatsby site named
my-awesome-siteusing the default starter:
- Create a Gatsby site named
my-awesome-blog-site, using gatsby-starter-blog:
See the Gatsby starters docs for more details.
develop
Once you’ve installed a Gatsby site, go to the root directory of your project and start the development server:
gatsby develop
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-H, --host | Set host. Defaults to localhost |
-p, --port | Set port. Defaults to env.PORT or 8000 |
-o, --open | Open the site in your (default) browser for you |
-S, --https | Use HTTPS |
--inspect | Opens a port for debugging |
Follow the Local HTTPS guide to find out how you can set up an HTTPS development server using Gatsby.
Preview changes on other devices
You can use the Gatsby develop command with the host option to access your dev environment on other devices on the same network, run:
Then the terminal will log information as usual, but will additionally include a URL that you can navigate to from a client on the same network to see how the site renders.
Note: To access Gatsby on your local machine, use either http://localhost:8000 or the “On Your Network” URL.
build
At the root of a Gatsby site, compile your application and make it ready for deployment:
gatsby build
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--prefix-paths | Build site with link paths prefixed (set pathPrefix in your config) |
--no-uglify | Build site without uglifying JS bundles (for debugging) |
--profile | Build site with react profiling. See Profiling Site Performance with React Profiler |
--open-tracing-config-file | Tracer configuration file (OpenTracing compatible). See Performance Tracing |
--graphql-tracing | Trace (see above) every graphql resolver, may have performance implications. |
--no-color, --no-colors | Disables colored terminal output |
In addition to these build options, there are some optional build environment variables for more advanced configurations that can adjust how a build runs. For example, setting CI=true as an environment variable will tailor output for dumb terminals.
serve
At the root of a Gatsby site, serve the production build of your site for testing:
gatsby serve
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-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). |
info
At the root of a Gatsby site, get helpful environment information which will be required when reporting a bug:
gatsby info
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-C, --clipboard | Automagically copy environment information to clipboard |
clean
At the root of a Gatsby site, wipe out the cache (.cache folder) and public directories:
gatsby clean
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.
Repl
Get a Node.js REPL (interactive shell) with context of your Gatsby environment:
gatsby repl
Gatsby will prompt you to type in commands and explore. When it shows this: gatsby >
You can type in a command, such as one of these:
babelrc
components
dataPaths
getNodes()
nodes
pages
schema
siteConfig
staticQueries
When combined with the GraphQL explorer, these REPL commands could be very helpful for understanding your Gatsby site’s data.
For more information, check out the Gatsby REPL documentation.
Disabling colored output
In addition to the explicit --no-color option, the CLI respects the presence of the NO_COLOR environment variable (see no-color.org).
How to change your default package manager for your next project?
When you use gatsby new for the first time to create a new project, you are asked to choose your default package manager between yarn and npm.
Once you’ve made your choice, the CLI won’t ask for your preference again for any subsequent project.
If you want to change this for your next project you have to edit the config file created automatically by the CLI.
This file is available on your system at: ~/.config/gatsby/config.json
In it you’re going to see something like this.
Edit your packageManager value, save and you’re good to go for your next project using gatsby new.