LiveLocalhost CLI usage

June 17, 2025

316 words, 2-minute read

The switches -? or --help show CLI help:

terminal

npx livelocalhost --help

The following CLI switches are supported:

CLI	description
`-v`, `--version`	show application version
`-?`, `--help`	show CLI help
`-E`, `--helpenv`	show .env/environment variable help
`-A`, `--helpapi`	show Node.js API help
`-e`, `--env <file>`	load defaults from an .env file
`-p`, `--serveport <port>`	HTTP port (default `8000`)
`-d`, `--servedir <dir>`	directory to serve (`./`)
`-r`, `--reloadservice <path>`	path to reload service (`/livelocalhost.service`)
`-j`, `--hotloadJS`	enable JavaScript hot reloading (`false`)
`-w`, `--watchDebounce <ms>`	debounce time for file changes (default `600`)
`-l`, `--accessLog`	show a server access log (`false`)

Examples #

Serve files from ./build/ at http://localhost:8080 and show the access log:

terminal

npx livelocalhost --serveport 8080 --servedir ./build/ --accessLog

The first two non-dashed parameters are presumed to be the port and directory. A simpler version of the same command:

terminal

npx livelocalhost 8080 ./build/ -l

Stop the server with Ctrl | Cmd + C.

Hot reloading #

Browser hot reloading is available when:

the application has permission to watch OS files, and
--reloadservice is a valid URL path starting /.

The default Server Sent Events service path for hot reloading is /livelocalhost.service. A client-side script at /livelocalhost.service.js is injected into all HTML files which automatically refreshes the browser:

CSS changes are hot reloaded without a full page refresh
HTML changes trigger a full page refresh
JavaScript changes trigger a full page refresh when --hotloadJS is enabled (off by default).

You need only change --reloadservice when the default path is in use or you want to disable hot reloading (set any value that does not start with /).

Watch debouncing #

When a file is changed, LiveLocalhost waits 600ms. A hot reload is only triggered if no other files change within that time.

You can change the delay time using --watchDebounce. Note that very low settings can make reloading slower.