Quire Commands

Start and Preview Projects
Output Files
Get Help
Not Yet Implemented
Helpful Non-Quire commands

Learn how to start and preview projects, output files, and more

Quire commands are typically run from Terminal on a Mac and PowerShell on a PC. They control creating, previewing, and outputting Quire projects. The following commands are available.

Run quire --help in your command-line shell for a full list of the Quire commands and options defined below.

Start and Preview Projects

Command	Action	Notes
`quire new`	Create a new Quire project with the default starter content	The command must include a project name, for example `quire new my-project`. The name can be anything as long as it doesn’t contain spaces or special characters. When you run this command, a folder containing default starter content will be created in your computer’s home directory.
`quire preview`	Build and serve the Quire site in development mode	This command enables you to preview your project at the default URL http://localhost:8080/. If there are errors in your project, messaging will appear in your command-line shell that point you to issues in your Markdown or YAML.

Use npm install to install Quire’s dependencies when you clone a project and preview it for the first time. This command only needs to be run once in a project.

Output Files

Command	Action	Notes
`quire build`	Build project site files used to generate the various outputs	This creates the site files for the HTML format of the project. These site files are then used to create the PDF or EPUB versions of the project. This is therefore a necessary step before running the commands `quire epub` and `quire pdf`.
`quire pdf`	Build Quire project in PDF format	You must run `quire build` before running this command.
`quire epub`	Build Quire project in EPUB format	You must run `quire build` before running this command.
`quire clean`	Remove old build outputs	This command is distinct from the quire/11ty package script `clean`, to allow different behaviors for Quire editors and developers.

Get Help

Command	Action	Notes
`quire --version`	List Quire version number	This is useful for troubleshooting and confirming updates.
`quire --help`	Provide list of Quire commands	This is useful if you need a reminder of commands.
`quire info`	List `quire-11ty`, `quire-cli`, and starter package version numbers	This command must be run while in a Quire project directory.
`quire info --debug`	Include node, npm, and OS version numbers in addition to `quire-11ty`, `quire-cli`, and starter package numbers	This command must be run while in a Quire project directory.

Not Yet Implemented

These commands are not yet available but are currently under development.

Command	Action	Notes
`quire configure`	Edit the Quire CLI configuration
`quire preview pdf`	Preview your Quire publication as a PDF
`quire preview epub`	Preview your Quire publication as an EPUB
`quire server`	Start a local web server to serve a previously built Quire site
`quire version`	Set the Quire version you want to use when running commands	For example, `quire version 1.0.0.`. To set the quire version globally use the `--global` command flag. This is useful when switching between old and new Quire projects.
`quire install`	Clone an existing Quire project from a git repository

Helpful Non-Quire commands

Command	Action	Notes
`cd`	Used to change project directories	You will use this command to navigate into your Quire project directory. Once you are in the directory you can run commands like `quire preview` and `quire build`.
`cd ..`	Will take you back one directory level	This is especially useful if you keep multiple Quire projects as sub-directories within a main directory.
`ls`	Used to list all the files when in a project directory	This can be useful in making sure you are in the right folder.
`!!`	This will re-run the last command you entered

The key combo Control-C can be used to stop the preview of a Quire project. Stopping and restarting the Quire preview is helpful for troubleshooting.

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