How to use the schematics CLI?

Introduction

@pbuilder/cli is designed to assist with everything related to schematics. To fully benefit from the CLI, it is essential to understand its useful commands. The CLI is agnostic of any JavaScript framework, so if you need to create a set of schematics for a specific framework or solution, consider developing your own CLI to handle those schematics.

Create a Schematic Project

Creation of schematic library project

builder new <project-name> [author] --bundler <bundler-name> --package-manager <manager> --skip-installation --dry-run --help

Execute schematics

builder exec | g is a command that allows you to execute any schematics, whether they are installed or not.

Option	Description
—dry-run	Report actions that would be taken without writing out results. (default: false)
—registry	The NPM registry to use.
—keep-installed	If the collection is not install you could keep installed (default: false)
—package-manager	The package manager used to install dependencies. [string] [choices: “npm”, “yarn”, “pnpm”, “cnpm”, “bun”] (default: “npm”)
—send-pm	Send the package manager to the schematic (default: false)
—send-registry	Send the registry to the schematic (default: false)
-h, —help	display help for command

Local schematic

If you have created schematics within your project and want to build and test them, use the following command:

builder exec ./dist/collection.json my-schematic

Published schematics

For executing schematics from a published collection, use this command:

builder g [collection-name] [schematic-name] [options]

Note

If the collection is not installed, the CLI will install it temporarily. To keep it installed, you can use the --keep-install option:

builder g [collection-name] [schematic-name] [options] --keep-install

Private packages

To execute schematics from private packages, specify the registry with the following command:

builder exec [collection-name] [schematic-name] [options] --registry="http://localhost:4873"

📦 builder config Command

The builder config command allows you to read, write, delete, and list configuration values used by the CLI.

🧠 How Configuration Works

1. Local Config (./builder.config.json)

   • If found, it overrides global config.
   • Project-specific settings.

2. Global Config (~/.config/builder-cli/config.json)

   • Loaded when no local config exists.
   • Used for user-wide settings.

3. Default Config (applied automatically if no config exists):

const DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
  cli: {
    showBanner: true,
  },
};

Get info about a schematic

Before using a new set of schematics, it’s important to gather information about them. This helps you understand what each schematic does and the options it offers.

Get all the schematics of a collection

To list all schematics available in a collection, use this command:

builder info [collection-name]

Get all the options of a schematic

To get detailed information about the options for a specific schematic, use the following command:

builder info [collection-name] [schematic-name]

Builder add

Some schematic projects have a special schematic named builder-add or ng-add. This schematic is automatically executed after the collection is installed. To trigger this, use the following command:

builder add [collection-name]

This completes our basic introduction to using the CLI for schematics. With these commands, you are well-equipped to start working with schematics effectively. Happy coding!