A pluggable build tool built around dependency trees.

At it's core, mako is a build framework. On it's own, it is merely a conductor, and relies on plugins to configure what and how it builds. As a user, you can either assemble plugins together yourself, or simply use a bundled collection that is tailored to your use-case.

Check out the the wiki for resources on getting started.

The main flow for a mako build goes through 2 distinct phases: analyze and assemble.

The analyze phase reads files from some source, (typically the local filesystem) identifies dependencies, then kicks off analyze recursively as new files are discovered. Throughout this process, a dependency tree is being generated.

The assemble phase takes the tree generated by analyze, and prepares to write the output files to some destination. (typcially, also the local filesystem) During this phase, the tree could be deconstructed somewhat, such as when a tree of dependencies is combined into a single output file.

Throughout these phases, are steps called hooks. Plugins add handlers for the hooks relevant to the work it is doing, and register themselves only for specific file extensions.

Plugins are absolutely necessary for mako to be useful. It was important for this tool to be flexible, so much inspiration was taken from Metalsmith.

Keep an eye on the wiki, I'll be working on adding more resources about plugins.

The easiest way to get up and running with mako is to use the CLI. For advanced users, the JS API is also available:

var mako = require('mako');
var browser = require('mako-browser');

// create a new runner
mako()
  // add the browser plugin bundle
  .use(browser())
  // run the build for index.js (assumed to be in pwd)
  .build('./index.js')
  // returns a promise
  .then(function () {
    // done
  });

Returns a new runner instance, no need for the new keyword.

Adds a new plugin to the runner. Each plugin is a Function, so any nested arrays will be flattened, allowing you to nest freely. (particularly useful for bundles)

The primary public interface, which runs both analysis and assemble for the given entries. It returns a Promise that resolves with an object that contains some information about the build itself.

Runs an analysis on the passed entries. This method isn't typically used directly, but it can be useful when you know what you are doing.

It returns a Promise that resolves with a build information object.

Runs the assemble phase for the given entries, this will skip the analyze phase in case you know it has already been finished. (such as when calling runner.analyze() manually)

It returns a Promise that resolves with a build information object.