vue-cli

A simple CLI for scaffolding Vue.js projects.

Installation

Prerequisites: Node.js (>=4.x, 6.x preferred) and Git.

$ npm install -g vue-cli

Usage

$ vue init <template-name> <project-name>

Example:

$ vue init webpack my-project

The above command pulls the template from vuejs-templates/webpack, prompts for some information, and generates the project at ./my-project/.

vue build

Use vue-cli as a zero-configuration development tool for your Vue apps and component, check out the docs.

Official Templates

The purpose of official Vue project templates are to provide opinionated, battery-included development tooling setups so that users can get started with actual app code as fast as possible. However, these templates are un-opinionated in terms of how you structure your app code and what libraries you use in addition to Vue.js.

All official project templates are repos in the vuejs-templates organization. When a new template is added to the organization, you will be able to run vue init <template-name> <project-name> to use that template. You can also run vue list to see all available official templates.

Current available templates include:

webpack - A full-featured Webpack + vue-loader setup with hot reload, linting, testing & css extraction.
webpack-simple - A simple Webpack + vue-loader setup for quick prototyping.
browserify - A full-featured Browserify + vueify setup with hot-reload, linting & unit testing.
browserify-simple - A simple Browserify + vueify setup for quick prototyping.
simple - The simplest possible Vue setup in a single HTML file

Custom Templates

It's unlikely to make everyone happy with the official templates. You can simply fork an official template and then use it via vue-cli with:

vue init username/repo my-project

Where username/repo is the GitHub repo shorthand for your fork.

The shorthand repo notation is passed to download-git-repo so you can also use things like bitbucket:username/repo for a Bitbucket repo and username/repo#branch for tags or branches.

If you would like to download from a private repository use the --clone flag and the cli will use git clone so your SSH keys are used.

Local Templates

Instead of a GitHub repo, you can also use a template on your local file system:

vue init ~/fs/path/to-custom-template my-project

Writing Custom Templates from Scratch

A template repo must have a template directory that holds the template files.
A template repo may have a metadata file for the template which can be either a meta.js or meta.json file. It can contain the following fields:
- prompts: used to collect user options data;
- filters: used to conditional filter files to render.
- completeMessage: the message to be displayed to the user when the template has been generated. You can include custom instruction here.

prompts

The prompts field in the metadata file should be an object hash containing prompts for the user. For each entry, the key is the variable name and the value is an Inquirer.js question object. Example:

{
  "prompts": {
    "name": {
      "type": "string",
      "required": true,
      "message": "Project name"
    }
  }
}

After all prompts are finished, all files inside template will be rendered using Handlebars, with the prompt results as the data.

Conditional Prompts

A prompt can be made conditional by adding a when field, which should be a JavaScript expression evaluated with data collected from previous prompts. For example:

{
  "prompts": {
    "lint": {
      "type": "confirm",
      "message": "Use a linter?"
    },
    "lintConfig": {
      "when": "lint",
      "type": "list",
      "message": "Pick a lint config",
      "choices": [
        "standard",
        "airbnb",
        "none"
      ]
    }
  }
}

The prompt for lintConfig will only be triggered when the user answered yes to the lint prompt.

Pre-registered Handlebars Helpers

Two commonly used Handlebars helpers, if_eq and unless_eq are pre-registered:

{{#if_eq lintConfig "airbnb"}};{{/if_eq}}

Custom Handlebars Helpers

You may want to register additional Handlebars helpers using the helpers property in the metadata file. The object key is the helper name:

module.exports = {
  helpers: {
    lowercase: str => str.toLowerCase()
  }
}

Upon registration, they can be used as follows:

{{ lowercase name }}

File filters

The filters field in the metadata file should be an object hash containing file filtering rules. For each entry, the key is a minimatch glob pattern and the value is a JavaScript expression evaluated in the context of prompt answers data. Example:

{
  "filters": {
    "test/**/*": "needTests"
  }
}

Files under test will only be generated if the user answered yes to the prompt for needTests.

Note that the dot option for minimatch is set to true so glob patterns would also match dotfiles by default.

Skip rendering

The skipInterpolation field in the metadata file should be a minimatch glob pattern. The files matched should skip rendering. Example:

{
  "skipInterpolation": "src/**/*.vue"
}

Additional data available in meta.{js,json}

destDirName - destination directory name

{
  "completeMessage": "To get started:\n\n  cd {{destDirName}}\n  npm install\n  npm run dev"
}

inPlace - generating template into current directory

{
  "completeMessage": "{{#inPlace}}To get started:\n\n  npm install\n  npm run dev.{{else}}To get started:\n\n  cd {{destDirName}}\n  npm install\n  npm run dev.{{/inPlace}}"
}

Installing a specific template version

vue-cli uses the tool download-git-repo to download the official templates used. The download-git-repo tool allows you to indicate a specific branch for a given repository by providing the desired branch name after a pound sign (#).

The format needed for a specific official template is:

vue init '<template-name>#<branch-name>' <project-name>