CLI#

Rocket ships a small CLI for local development and production builds. Use the project-local binary through npm scripts or npx.

Commands#

rocket init#

Creates a compact Atlas docs starter in the current npm project:

npx rocket init

The initializer creates these files when they do not already exist:

• rocket-config.js
• docs/pages/sharedData.js
• public/rocket-theme.css
• docs/pages/index.rocket.md
• docs/pages/docs.rocket.md
• docs/pages/javascript-demo.rocket.md
• docs/pages/request-demo.rocket.md
• docs/pages/site-status.rocket.js
• .agents/skills/rocket/SKILL.md

The starter uses Atlas layouts, exports the matching Atlas component maps, includes navigation icons through menu.iconName, wires a central project theme stylesheet, and includes both JavaScript Demo and Request Demo examples.

It also updates package.json when possible:

• adds "type": "module" when type is missing
• adds start and build scripts when those names are available
• adds rocket:start and rocket:build when existing project scripts already use start or build

rocket init does not overwrite existing files, install dependencies, add @rocket/js to package.json, or run a build. Existing CommonJS projects are rejected before any files are written.

If package.json explicitly contains "type": "commonjs", either change it to "type": "module" before running init, or let Rocket apply that package change:

npx rocket init --yes

Without --yes, Rocket prints the exact package patch and stops before writing starter files.

rocket start#

Starts the development server:

npx rocket start

The dev server opens the browser, listens on port 8888 by default, and can be restarted with Ctrl+R in the terminal.

Useful flags:

npx rocket start --port 3000
npx rocket start --no-open
npx rocket start --no-watch
npx rocket start --no-watch --no-open

--no-open keeps the browser closed. --no-watch disables Rocket's automatic file watching and reloads while keeping manual Ctrl+R restarts available. Use --no-watch --no-open in constrained environments where file watching fails with EMFILE.

rocket build#

Runs a production build:

npx rocket build

Static Pages are rendered into dist/. If an adapter is configured, Rocket also gives the adapter the discovered static and server-rendered Pages so it can write deployment-specific output.

Options#

-c, --config-file <path>#

Load a config file other than rocket-config.js:

npx rocket -c ./config/rocket-config.js start
npx rocket -c ./config/rocket-config.js build

build -o, --output-dir <path>#

Write static build output to a directory other than dist/:

npx rocket build --output-dir ./site-dist

Do not use public/ as the build output directory. Rocket reserves project-root public/ for Public Assets.

package.json scripts#

For repeatable project commands, add scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "rocket start",
    "build": "rocket build"
  }
}

Then run:

npm start
npm run build

See Configuration for the rocket-config.js file these commands load. rocket init adds these scripts automatically when the names are not already used.

Requirements#

Rocket requires Node.js 22 or newer.

For the current command list, run:

npx rocket --help