Depot: A Javascript devtool orchestrator

Depot (formerly Graco) is a tool for orchestrating other Javascript devtools. As an analogy: * Depot is like [Cargo], but for Javascript. * Depot is like [create-react-app], but for people who like software engineering. * Depot is like the "scripts" field of package.json, but with more power and flexibility.

Depot works on Javascript workspaces that have been created by Depot, specifically those using the [model JS workspace] format. Depot supports the following commands:

• depot new - creates a new workspace or package with devtools preinstalled
• depot init - installs workspace dependencies with [pnpm]
• depot build - type-checks with [Typescript], and:
  • For libraries, transpiles with [Typescript]
  • For scripts and websites, bundles with [Vite]
• depot test - runs tests with [Vitest]
• depot fmt - formats source files with [Prettier]
• depot doc - generates documentation with [Typedoc]

A few benefits of using Depot: * Depot works with either browser or Node packages. * Depot automatically runs command dependencies. For example, depot test will run depot build, and depot build will run depot init. * Depot provides an interactive terminal interface for showing the running output of processes when building in watch mode.

Installation

The install script will download a prebuilt binary if possible. Run the script as follows:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cognitive-engineering-lab/depot/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Alternatively, you can follow one of these installation methods:

From crates.io

cargo install depot-js --locked

From source

git clone https://github.com/cognitive-engineering-lab/depot cd depot cargo install --path crates/depot --locked

Usage

To get started, create a new package:

depot new my-lib

You can specify --target <lib|site|script> to indicate that the package is a library (a Javascript package used by other packages), a website (an HTML site that uses Javascript), or a script (a Javascript program that would be either run on the CLI or included as a <script> tag.) You can also specify --platform <browser|node> depending on whether your package is intended to run in the browser or via NodeJS.

You can also create a workspace and a package within that workspace, like this:

depot new --workspace my-workspace cd my-workspace depot new my-lib

Inside the workspace, you can build all packages like this:

depot build

This generates a <package>/dist directory containing the built files. You can run in watch mode by passing -w like this:

depot build -w

Additional documentation about each command will be created soon once the Depot design is finalized.

Projects using Depot

Depot is used in a few of our projects: * mdbook-quiz * aquascope