Site Development Workflow

Efficient development workflows make building sites with Super Simple Includes fast and enjoyable.

File Watching with Auto-Rebuild

Watch your site files and automatically rebuild when changes are detected using inotifywait:

Installation

# Ubuntu/Debian
                sudo apt install inotify-tools
                

Watch and Serve Script

This script rebuilds on file changes and serves the output on a local port:

#!/bin/bash
                # dev-server.sh
                
                SITE_DIR="${1:-site}"
                OUTPUT_DIR="${2:-output}"
                PORT="${3:-8000}"
                
                mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"
                
                # Initial build
                echo "Building site..."
                ssi deploy "$SITE_DIR" "$OUTPUT_DIR" || { echo "Initial build failed"; exit 1; }
                
                # Start local server in background
                python -m http.server "$PORT" --directory "$OUTPUT_DIR" &
                SERVER_PID=$!
                echo "Serving at http://localhost:$PORT"
                
                # Stop server on exit
                trap 'kill $SERVER_PID; exit' INT TERM
                
                # Watch for changes
                echo "Watching $SITE_DIR for changes. Press Ctrl+C to stop."
                inotifywait -m -r -e modify,create,delete,move "$SITE_DIR" \
                    --exclude '.*\.sw[px]$|.*~$' \
                    --format '%w%f' |
                while read -r file; do
                    echo "Changed: $file — rebuilding..."
                    ssi deploy "$SITE_DIR" "$OUTPUT_DIR" && echo "Build complete." || echo "Build failed."
                done
                

Usage

chmod +x dev-server.sh
                
                # Default: site/ → output/ on port 8000
                ./dev-server.sh
                
                # Custom paths and port
                ./dev-server.sh my-site/ build/ 9000
                

Integration with Editors

VS Code Tasks

Add to .vscode/tasks.json:

{
                    "version": "2.0.0",
                    "tasks": [
                        {
                            "label": "SSI: Start Development Server",
                            "type": "shell",
                            "command": "./dev-server.sh",
                            "group": "build",
                            "presentation": {
                                "echo": true,
                                "reveal": "always",
                                "panel": "new"
                            }
                        }
                    ]
                }
                

Vim/Neovim

Auto-build on save:

autocmd BufWritePost *.html,*.md,*.toml silent !ssi deploy site/ output/