CLI Reference

You can use the Command-Line Interface (CLI) provided by Astro to develop, build, and preview your project from a terminal window.

Use the CLI by running one of the commands documented on this page, optionally followed by any flags. Flags customize the behavior of a command. For example, to start the development server on port 8080, you would combine the astro dev command with the --port flag: astro dev --port 8080.

In most cases you will use the CLI via your package manager:

npx astro dev --port 8080

If you started your project using the create astro wizard, you can also use the scripts in package.json for a shorter version of these commands. See the README.md in your project for details of which commands are available.

# run the dev server on port 8080 using the `start` script in `package.json`
npm run start -- --port 8080

(The extra -- before the --port flag is necessary for npm to pass your flags to the astro command.)

Runs Astro’s development server. This is a local HTTP server that doesn’t bundle assets. It uses Hot Module Replacement (HMR) to update your browser as you save changes in your editor.

Flags

Use these flags to customize the behavior of the Astro dev server. For flags shared with other Astro commands, see common flags below.

Specifies which port to run on. Defaults to 3000.

--host [optional host address]

Section titled --host [optional host address]

Sets which network IP addresses the dev server should listen on (i.e. non-localhost IPs). This can be useful for testing your project on local devices like a mobile phone during development.

  • --host — listen on all addresses, including LAN and public addresses
  • --host <custom-address> — expose on a network IP address at <custom-address>

Builds your site for deployment. By default, this will generate static files and place them in a dist/ directory. If SSR is enabled, this will generate the necessary server files to serve your site.

Flags

Use these flags to customize your build. For flags shared with other Astro commands, see common flags below.

Includes Markdown draft pages in the build.

Starts a local server to serve your static dist/ directory.

This command is useful for previewing your build locally, before deploying it. It is not designed to be run in production. For help with production hosting, check out our guide on Deploying an Astro Website.

Since Astro 1.5.0, astro preview also works for SSR builds if you use an adapter that supports it. Currently, only the Node adapter supports astro preview.

Can be combined with the common flags documented below.

Runs diagnostics (such as type-checking within .astro files) against your project and reports errors to the console. If any errors are found the process will exit with a code of 1.

This command is intended to be used in CI workflows.

📚 Read more about TypeScript support in Astro.

Adds an integration to your configuration. Read more in the integrations guide.

Launches the Astro Docs website directly from the terminal.

Sets telemetry configuration for the current CLI user. Telemetry is anonymous data that provides the Astro team insights into which Astro features are most often used.

Telemetry can be disabled with this CLI command:

astro telemetry disable

Telemetry can later be re-enabled with:

astro telemetry enable

The clear command resets the telemetry data:

astro telemetry clear

Specifies the path to the project root. If not specified, the current working directory is assumed to be the root.

The root is used for finding the Astro configuration file.

astro --root myRootFolder/myProjectFolder dev

Specifies the path to the config file relative to the project root. Defaults to astro.config.mjs. Use this if you use a different name for your configuration file or have your config file in another folder.

astro --config config/astro.config.mjs dev

Configures the site for your project. Passing this flag will override the site value in your astro.config.mjs file, if one exists.

Added in: v1.4.1

Configures the base for your project. Passing this flag will override the base value in your astro.config.mjs file, if one exists.

Enables verbose logging, which is helpful when debugging an issue.

Enables silent logging, which will run the server without any console output.

Use these flags to get information about the astro CLI.

Prints the Astro version number and exits.

Prints the help message and exits.