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The Retype CLI is clean and simple. The majority of the time you will run just one command: retype watch
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Be sure to review the project options available within the retype.yml as it does unlock a lot more power, flexibility, and customization.
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The --help option can be passed with any command to get additional details, for instance retype watch --help will return all options for the retype watch command.
The command retype --version will return the current version number of your Retype install. See all public Retype releases.
Let's go through each of the retype CLI commands and be sure to check out the Getting Started guide for step by instructions on using each of these commands.
The retype watch command is the easiest way to get your project built and running in a browser within seconds, although retype watch is just shortcut for a sequence of other commands that could be executed individually.
retype init
retype build
retype run
The retype watch command will also watch for file changes and will automatically update the website in your web browser with the updated page.
watch:
Serve a static website, watch for file changes
Usage:
retype watch [options] [<path>]
Arguments:
<path> Path to the project root or a Retype config [Optional]
Options:
-a, --api Watch for API changes
--license <license> Retype license key
--host <host> Custom Host name or IP address
--port <port> Custom TCP port
-v, --verbose Verbose logging
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
You can manually create a retype.yml file, or you can have Retype stub out a basic file with a few initial values by running the command retype init.
From your command line, navigate to any folder location where you have one or more Markdown .md files, such as the root of a GitHub project, then run the following command:
retype init
Calling the retype init command will create a simple retype.yml file with the following default values:
input: .
output: .retype
url: # Add your website address here
branding:
title: Project Name
label: Docs
links:
- text: Getting Started
link: https://retype.com/guides/getting-started/
footer:
copyright: "© Copyright {{ year }}. All rights reserved."All the configs are optional, but the above sample demonstrates a few of the options you will typically want to start with. See the project configuration docs for a full list of all options.
To change the title of the project, revise the branding.title config. For instance, let's change to Company X:
branding:
title: Company XIf there is already a retype.yml file within the project, runnin the retype init command will not create a new retype.yml file.
The retype.yml file is not actually required, but you will want to make custom configurations to your project and this is how those instructions are passed to Retype.
init:
Initialize a new Retype project
Usage:
retype init [options] [<path>]
Arguments:
<path> Path to the project root [Optional]
Options:
--override <override> JSON configuration overriding Retype config values
-v, --verbose Verbose logging
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
To generate your new website, run the command retype build. This command builds a new website based upon the .md files within the input location.
retype build
Within just a few seconds, Retype will create a new website and save to the output location as defined in the retype.yml. By default, the output location is a new folder named .retype. You can rename to whatever you like, or adjust the path to generate the output to any other location, such as another sub-folder.
If the .md documentation files for your project were located not in the root (.) but within a docs subfolder AND you wanted to have Retype send the output to a website folder, you would use the following config:
input: docs
output: websiteLet's say you wanted the your new Retype website to run from within a docs folder which was then also inside of a root website folder, then you would configure:
input: docs
output: website/docsIf you are hosting your website using GitHub Pages AND you wanted to host your website from the docs folder, you could then move your .md files into a different subfolder and configure as follows:
input: src
output: docsThe input and output configs provide unlimited flexibility to instruct Retype on where to get your project content and configurations files and where to output the generated website.
build:
Generate a static website
Usage:
retype build [options] [<path>]
Arguments:
<path> Path to the project root or a Retype config [Optional]
Options:
--output <output> Custom path to the output directory
--license <license> Retype license key
--override <override> JSON configuration overriding Retype config values
-v, --verbose Verbose logging
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
The retype run command starts up your new Retype website and opens in a web browser.
retype run
The website generated by Retype is a static HTML and JavaScript site. No special server-side hosting, such as PHP or Ruby is required. A Retype generated website can be hosted on any web server or hosting service, such a GitHub Pages.
You can also use any other local web server instead of retype run. Retype only includes a web server out of convenience, not requirement. Any web server will do. A couple other simple options could be live-server or static-server.
run:
Serve a static website
Usage:
retype run [options] [<path>]
Arguments:
<path> Path to the project root or a Retype config [Optional]
Options:
--host <host> Custom Host name or IP address
--port <port> Custom TCP port
-v, --verbose Verbose logging
-?, -h, --help Show help and usage information
The Retype CLI commands supporting the --override option allow to modify configuration loaded from a retype.yml file prior to execution.
The --override option is helpful in certain scenarios like generating websites having different url config from the same sources, without the need to maintain several retype.yml files.
The CLI expects an escaped json object passed as the option value. Then Retype merges retype.yml configuration with the provided json object in the way that colliding configs from the latter win. The --override json object may contain duplicates that will be processed sequentially.
url: https://retype.comThe command below will build the webisite with url: https://beta.retype.com.
retype build --override "{ \"url\": \"https://beta.retype.com\" }"
Passing null will remove the corresponding config value, so the website will be built like if url was not configured at all:
retype build --override "{ \"url\": null }"
When overriding a nested config, all parent keys must be included too.
The sample below will build a website having title: Retype and label: beta.
branding:
title: Retype
label: v1.10retype build --override "{ \"branding\": { \"label\": \"beta\"} }"
In order to override a complex object completely, it needs to be removed first.
The sample below will build a website having label: beta and no title.
branding:
title: Retype
label: v1.10retype build --override "{ \"branding\": null, \"branding\": { \"label\": \"beta\"} }"
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Please pay attention that duplicated keys are applied sequentially. Thus, it's important to place null before the overriding object.
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The following command will add the GitHub link to the links configuration array.
links:
- link: Retype
text: https://retype.comretype build --override "{ \"links\": [ { \"link\": \"https://github.com/retypeapp/retype\", \"text\": \"GitHub\" } ] }"
In order to replace an array items, the array needs to be removed first, and then overridden with an array of desired items.