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Watcher module (--watch)

The watcher module monitors your site files for changes and triggers a rebuild automatically. It also registers the build CLI command.

Build with watch

lunet build --watch

After the initial build, the watcher monitors for file changes and rebuilds the entire site when changes are detected.

Build CLI options

Option Default Description
--watch disabled Enable file watching after build
--dev disabled Set environment to "dev" (production otherwise)
--no-threads disabled Disable multi-threading (useful for debugging)

Serve with watch

lunet serve

The Server module enables --watch and --dev by default.

How watching works

The watcher creates file system watchers for each directory in your site. When files change:

  1. Events are collected and debounced — the watcher waits 200ms after the last change before triggering a rebuild.
  2. Duplicate events for the same file are squashed (only the latest event is kept).
  3. Events in excluded paths are filtered out.
  4. A full site rebuild is triggered with the remaining changes.

Excluded paths

The following paths are always excluded from watching:

  • .lunet/build/** — the output directory
  • Directories starting with "new" under .lunet/

The site configuration file is always watched, regardless of other exclusion rules.

See also