Using Generators

sao nm my-project

By running this command, SAO will install a generator which in this case is sao-nm from npm, and use it to generate files into my-project directory.

If you want it to generate into current directoy, just omit the second argument like this: sao nm.

A generator could be one of:

  • Local directory, e.g. sao ./path/to/my-generator
  • An npm package, e.g. sao react will be package sao-react.
    • To use an npm package that does not follow the sao-* naming convention, just prefix the name like this: sao npm:foo, then this will use the foo package instead of sao-foo.
  • A git repository, e.g. sao egoist/sao-nm will use github.com/egoist/sao-nm, you can use following prefixes for other git providers:
    • gitlab: For GitLab. e.g. sao gitlab:user/my-generator
    • bitbucket: For BitBucket. e.g. sao bitbucket:user/my-generator
    • direct: For a git repository anywhere else sao direct:git@yourowngitrepo.com:user/my-generator.git

Versioning#

For npm package, you can use a specific verison of the generator:

sao nm@1
sao nm@0.2

The syntax here is the same as npm install.

For git repository, you can use a specific tag, commit or branch of the generator:

sao nm#dev
sao nm#v1.0.0

Sub-generators#

A generator might have sub-generators, you can run them like this:

sao nm:donate

The part after : is a sub-generator called donate, by running this command SAO will run the sub-generator which will add a postinstall script in package.json to show donation URL.

caution

Sub-generators are supposed to be run in an existing project, which means the output directory is always current working directory.

Update Cached Generator#

Once you've run a generator, it will be cached locally in ~/.sao directory. To run the same generator with an up-to-date version, you can add the --update or -u flag.

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