A lightweight CLI tool that discovers and runs commands across your projects: no config, no setup, just dawnfall and you're running.

Important

Dawnfall is local-first and free. No servers, no accounts, no telemetry. Everything runs on your machine.

Warning

Dawnfall is under active development. Flags and output may change. Not recommended for production CI pipelines yet.

Table of Contents

• Why Dawnfall?
• Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
• How It Works
• Development Setup

Why Dawnfall?

You work on projects with package.json scripts, pyproject.toml commands, deno.json tasks, or Cargo.toml scripts. Remembering which project has which command is a hassle. cd into each directory and run npm run build manually? There's a better way.

Dawnfall scans your entire project tree, discovers every runnable command, and presents them in an interactive TUI. Pick what you want, choose a mode: parallel, sequential, or copy to clipboard: and let Dawnfall handle the rest. No more digging through package.json files.

Features

• 🔍 Auto-discovery: scans package.json, pyproject.toml, deno.json, composer.json, Cargo.toml, project.godot — plugin-driven, easy to extend
• ⚡ Parallel & Sequential: run commands all at once or one by one
• 📋 Copy modes: copy commands as multi-line list or single chain (shell-aware separators, directory prefix for monorepos)
• 📦 Cache: --use-cache saves scan results for instant re-runs
• 📂 Monorepo aware: scans every package in the tree and exposes turbo.json pipeline/tasks
• 🛡️ Destructive guard: confirms before running clean/reset/delete commands
• 🌐 Remote repos: clone + scan GitHub repos on the fly (dawnfall --remote owner/repo)
• ⚙️ Configurable: .dawnfall/config.json for cache settings and .dawnfall/profiles.json for launch profiles

Installation

Global install (recommended)

npm install -g dawnfall

Then run from any project:

cd my-project
dawnfall

Run without installing

npx dawnfall

From source (development)

git clone https://github.com/divyanshudhruv/dawnfall.git
cd dawnfall
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Quick Start

cd my-project
dawnfall          # if installed globally
npx dawnfall      # without installing

Pick commands from the interactive list, choose a mode, and go.

Flag	What it does
dawnfall	Scan + select + run interactively
dawnfall --use-cache	Load/save scan results from cache
dawnfall --fresh	Force full re-scan
dawnfall --no-write	Run without creating any files or directories (ephemeral)
dawnfall --json	Output results as JSON
dawnfall --version / -v	Show version
dawnfall --help / -h	Show help
dawnfall --remote owner/repo	Clone GitHub repo + scan + show commands (view-only, ephemeral)
dawnfall clean	Delete the .dawnfall directory (cache, workflow, profiles)

For the full reference, see docs/commands.md.

How It Works

Local flow

flowchart TD
    A[Start] --> B{Cache?}
    B -->|Yes, fresh| C[Load from .dawnfall/cache.json]
    B -->|No/stale| D[Run scanners]
    D --> E[Save to cache]
    C --> F[Select commands]
    E --> F
    F --> G{Mode}
    G -->|Parallel| H[Spawn all at once]
    G -->|Sequential| I[Run one by one]
    G -->|Copy listed| J[Clipboard: multi-line]
    G -->|Copy chained| K[Clipboard: && chain]
    H --> L[Execute]
    I --> L
    J --> L
    K --> L
    L --> M[Show results]

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Remote repo flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as dawnfall --remote owner/repo
    participant T as Temp dir
    participant G as GitHub
    participant S as Scanners
    G-->>T: git clone
    T->>S: scan cloned repo
    S->>U: show available commands
    U->>T: delete temp dir

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Tips

• .dawnfall/config.json: enable cache by default and set its TTL
• .dawnfall/profiles.json: define launch profiles to skip command selection entirely
• dawnfall --use-cache: use for fast re-runs; combine with --fresh to force re-scan
• dawnfall --json: pipe output to other tools: dawnfall --json | jq '.[].name'
• dawnfall clean: delete the .dawnfall directory for a clean slate; combine with --fresh (dawnfall clean && dawnfall --fresh) to skip profile and workflow re-run prompts and force a full re-scan
• Background processes: in Parallel mode, long-running commands (dev, watch, serve) auto-background and are shown as (background); in Sequential mode they are skipped as (long-running)
• NO_COLOR: set NO_COLOR=1 to disable colored output
• Monorepos: every package in the tree is scanned; turbo.json pipeline and tasks appear as runnable commands
• Remote repos: pass --remote owner/repo to clone and scan without leaving the terminal. It is view-only: it lists the repo's available commands but never runs or selects them, and never touches your cache, workflow, or recent-projects list. The temp clone is deleted when Dawnfall exits, including on Ctrl+C

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/divyanshudhruv/dawnfall.git
cd dawnfall
npm install

Build and test:

npm run build          # build the CLI (tsup)
npm test               # run vitest test suite
npm run typecheck      # TypeScript type checking
npm run lint           # Biome lint
npm run format         # Biome format
npm run dev            # watch mode for development

Before contributing, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

The test suite creates temp directories for filesystem tests: no clean-up needed.