CLI Reference

VitePress command-line interface reference for development, building, and previewing your documentation site.

Commands

vitepress dev

Start the development server with hot module replacement.

vitepress dev [root] [options]

Options:

Option	Default	Description
--port	5173	Port number
--open	false	Open browser on start
--host	localhost	Hostname to bind

Examples:

# Start dev server
vitepress dev docs

# Custom port
vitepress dev docs --port 3000

# Open browser automatically
vitepress dev docs --open

# Allow external access
vitepress dev docs --host 0.0.0.0

vitepress build

Build the site for production.

vitepress build [root] [options]

Options:

Option	Default	Description
--outDir	.vitepress/dist	Output directory
--base	/	Base URL path

Examples:

# Build for production
vitepress build docs

# Custom output directory
vitepress build docs --outDir public

# Custom base path
vitepress build docs --base /docs/

vitepress preview

Preview the production build locally.

vitepress preview [root] [options]

Options:

Option	Default	Description
--port	4173	Port number
--open	false	Open browser on start

Examples:

# Preview production build
vitepress preview docs

# Custom port
vitepress preview docs --port 8080

NPM Scripts

Standard npm scripts for your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "docs:dev": "vitepress dev docs",
    "docs:build": "vitepress build docs",
    "docs:preview": "vitepress preview docs"
  }
}

Common Workflows

# Development cycle
npm run docs:dev       # Start dev server
npm run docs:build     # Build for production
npm run docs:preview   # Preview build

# CI/CD
npm ci                 # Install dependencies
npm run docs:build     # Build site