grunty

Run any grunt plugin as NPM script without Gruntfile.js

Zero task configuration (defaults)

Often I want to run a simple task as NPM script, but hate creating verbose Gruntfile, installing grunt dependencies, etc. Enter grunty - just specify the plugin's module, name and any options in the NPM script command. No global grunt installation is necessary.

npm install --save-dev grunty

then use in the package.json

"scripts": {
  "concat": "grunty grunt-contrib-concat concat --src=a.js,b.js --dest=dist/out.js",
  "nice": "grunty grunt-nice-package nice-package"
}

Using configuration file

You can even pass configuration using a JSON file or JS file (just export an object)

For example, put grunt plugin configurations into config.json

{
    "concat": {
        "default": {
            "src": ["a.js", "b.js"],
            "dest": "dist/out.js"
        }
    }
}

The add config.json to the NPM script line

"scripts": {
  "concat": "grunty grunt-contrib-concat concat config.json",
}

You can see an example JSON config file in test/concat.json which can be triggered using npm run concat-config command defined in the package scripts.

Similarly you can export the JavaScript object from a JS file for configuration, see test/concat.js

Examples

Deploying to GitHub pages

npm i -D grunty grunt-gh-pages

Create deploy.json

{
  "gh-pages": {
    "options": {
      "base": "."
    },
    "src": [
      "index.html",
      "dist/app-bundle.min.js"
    ]
  }
}

{
  "scripts": {
    "deploy": "grunty grunt-gh-pages gh-pages deploy.json"
  }
}

The run npm run deploy to deploy to GitHub pages.

Details

Separate multiple values like filenames using , as in --src=path/to/foo,path/to/bar

The plugin runs with the your local package.json attached to the config, thus you can use pkg.name, pkg.description and other properties. If the plugin requires more elaborate options, write Gruntfile.js.

You do need to install the actual plugin and save reference in the dev dependencies.

Read Put mock data into Node require cache to learn how this project fakes gruntfile.js without actually even saving mock one to disk.

If you need to run an example and see diagnostic messages, you can using npm scripts and enabling the debug messages using debug. For example to debug parsing config json

$ DEBUG=cli npm run concat-config
> grunty grunt-contrib-concat concat test/concat.json
grunty@0.1.2 - Run any grunt plugin as NPM script without Gruntfile.js
  "Gleb Bahmutov <gleb.bahmutov@gmail.com>" https://github.com/bahmutov/grunty
  cwd /Users/gleb/git/grunty
  cli grunty options +0ms { tasks: [], npm: [] }
  cli grunty plugin +2ms grunt-contrib-concat
  cli grunty target +0ms concat
  cli grunty config filename +1ms /grunty/test/concat.json

Small print

License: MIT - do anything with the code, but don't blame me if it does not work.

Spread the word: tweet, star on github, etc.

Support: if you find any problems with this module, email / tweet / open issue on Github

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.