Quire Commands

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

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

CommandActionNotes
quire new my-projectCreate a new Quire project with the default starter contentIn this instance, the new project is named my-project but 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 previewRun a local server to preview the project in a browserThe default URL for previewing is 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

CommandActionNotes
quire buildBuild site files used to create various outputsThis 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 pdfOutput Quire project in PDF formatYou must run quire build before running this command.
quire epubOutput Quire project in EPUB formatYou must run quire build before running this command.
quire cleanRemove old build outputs

Get Help

CommandActionNotes
quire --versionList Quire version numberThis is useful for troubleshooting and confirming updates.
quire --helpProvide list of Quire commandsThis is useful if you need a reminder of commands.

Not Yet Implemented

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

CommandActionNotes
quire debugProvide log into about current projectThis will produce version numbers for the following: Quire, 11ty, Node, NPM, and your computer’s operating system. This information will be requested when logging bugs and requesting troubleshooting support.
quire configureEdit the Quire CLI configuration
quire preview pdfPreview your Quire publication as a PDF
quire preview epubPreview your Quire publication as an EPUB
quire serverStart a local web server to serve a previously built Quire site
quire versionSet the Quire version you want to use when running commandsThis will be useful when switching between old and new Quire projects.

Helpful Non-Quire commands

CommandActionNotes
cdUsed to change project directoriesYou 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 levelThis is especially useful if you keep multiple Quire projects as sub-directories within a main directory.
lsUsed to list all the files when in a project directoryThis 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.