flashmon 🚀

flashmon is a smart, dependency-aware file watcher for JavaScript and TypeScript projects. It is designed to be a faster and more efficient alternative to nodemon by only watching the files your application actually uses.

Why flashmon?

Traditional watchers like nodemon watch everything in your directory. flashmon is different:

• Dependency Tracking: It analyzes your code's AST to build a dependency graph.
• Selective Watching: It only watches the entry file and its local dependencies.
• Node Modules Aware: It automatically ignores node_modules, keeping the watcher lean and fast.
• Built with SWC: Uses super-fast Rust-based parsing for instantaneous dependency analysis.

Installation

Install it globally:

npm install -g flashmon

Usage

Simply point flashmon to your entry file:

npx flashmon server.js

TypeScript Support

flashmon works seamlessly with TypeScript projects:

npx flashmon src/index.ts

How it works

1. Parse: flashmon uses SWC to parse your entry file.
2. Graph: It recursively finds all import and require statements to build a dependency graph.
3. Watch: It uses chokidar to watch ONLY the files in that graph.
4. Restart: When any of those files change, it kills the current process and restarts it instantly.

Performance

In our benchmarks, flashmon is consistently 30-50% faster than nodemon in detecting changes and restarting, especially in larger projects with many unused files.

License

ISC

Acknowledgements

• SWC for the ultra-fast parser.
• chokidar for reliable file watching.