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CLI reference

Run Lunet from a site folder (the folder that contains config.scriban).

Global options

These options apply to all commands:

Option Description
-d, --define <name=value> Define a site variable (executed as a Scriban statement). Can be repeated.
-o, --output-dir <path> Override the output directory (default: .lunet/build/www/)
-i, --input-dir <path> Override the input directory (default: ., current directory)
--stacktrace Show full stack traces when errors occur (useful for debugging)
-h, --help Show help
-v, --version Show Lunet version

How --define works

Each --define value is executed as a Scriban statement against the SiteObject. Because the scripting context is the site itself, --define "baseurl=https://staging.example.com" sets site.baseurl, exactly as if you had written baseurl = "https://staging.example.com" in config.scriban.

You can use any valid Scriban expression:

lunet build --define "baseurl=https://staging.example.com"
lunet build -d "minify=false" -d "environment='staging'"

Defines are evaluated before config.scriban runs. This lets you use ?? (null-coalescing) in config to provide overridable defaults:

baseurl = baseurl ?? "https://example.com"

Commands

lunet init [folder]

Creates a new site folder by copying the built-in skeleton template.

lunet init mysite

The skeleton includes a minimal config.scriban, default layouts, and a sample home page. If [folder] is omitted, the current directory is used.

Options:

Option Description
-f, --force Create even if the target folder is not empty

lunet clean

Deletes the .lunet/build folder in the current site, removing all generated output and caches.

lunet clean

Requires config.scriban to exist in the current (or --input-dir) directory, otherwise prints an error.

lunet build

Builds the site once (or continuously with --watch).

lunet build
lunet build --dev
lunet build --watch
lunet build --define "baseurl=https://staging.example.com"

Options:

Option Description
--watch Watch for file changes and rebuild automatically (see Watcher module)
--dev Set site.environment = "dev" (default is "prod")
--no-threads Disable multi-threaded processing (useful for debugging)

When --dev is set, modules like Tracking disable production-only behavior (e.g. analytics injection).

lunet serve

Builds the site, starts a local web server, and watches for changes.

lunet serve

Options:

Option Description
--no-watch Disable file watching (serve only, no rebuild on changes)
--no-threads Disable multi-threaded processing

serve always operates in development mode (site.environment = "dev"); there is no --dev flag because it is enabled by default.

Notes:

  • Base URL is overridden to http://localhost:4000 unless baseurlforce = true is set in config.scriban. There is no CLI option to change the port; set baseurl in config if you need a different port.
  • Live reload is enabled by default — a small script is injected into <head> that connects via WebSocket and triggers a browser refresh on rebuild. See Server module.
  • Error responses redirect to /404.html if the file exists.

See also