Commands

Toucan includes the following built-in subcommands to generate static sites: init, generate, watch, and serve.

Init

The init command initializes a new Toucan project. It takes an optional argument for the project directory name (defaults to site if not specified). It creates the necessary directories and files for your project inside the specified directory.

toucan init my-site

Generate

The generate command creates static files for your website using the build target you specify. If you want to learn more about how to set up and use build targets, please read our detailed guide on target settings.

toucan generate --target dev

Watch

The watch command monitors a source directory for changes and automatically rebuilds the distribution files, regenerating the site whenever changes are detected.

toucan watch --target dev

Serve

The serve command starts a local web server to host a specified directory. It allows serving a folder with an optional port number. By default, your site will be accessible at http://localhost:3000/ if run as follows:

toucan serve ./dist -h localhost -p 3000

You can specify a hostname and port parameter to bind your web server to a given address. This allows you to preview your website at http://localhost:3000/.

You can also run Toucan commands using Docker. For more information on how to do this, please refer to the next guide.