node-less-chokidar

Compile .less into .css and watch for file changes!

HOWTO

I made this with Create React App in mind, put something similar in your package.json

"scripts": {
    "start": "npm run build-css && run-p -ncr watch-css start-js",
    "start-js": "react-scripts start",
 
    "build": "run-s -n build-css build-js",
    "build-js": "react-scripts build",
 
    "test": "run-s -n build-css test-js",
    "test-js": "react-scripts test --env=jsdom",
 
    "build-css": "node-less-chokidar src",
    "watch-css": "node-less-chokidar src --watch"
},
"devDependencies": {
    "node-less-chokidar": "^0.3.0",
    "npm-run-all": "^4.1.3"
}

npm start should build all CSS from the LESS files and then keep watching, npm test will build all files and then run the tests, npm run build-css will build all the CSS, npm run watch-css will watch for changes in the LESS files and build them when they change.

Known bug

There's a bug though in the following case:

Let's say you have these files:

• variables.less (variable definitions, no imports)
• mixins.less (mixins, importing variables.less)
• main.less (imports variables.less, mixins.less and uses the variables and mixins)

If you change variables.less or mixins.less it won't rebuild main.css, because it doesn't know about the dependency graph of the files. The fix is that if you know you're editing one of these files that are imported by other files, just run npm run build-css and everything will be fine.