justfile-style

Justfile Style

Extract scripts and configuration

Keep recipes focused on orchestration. Do not embed script bodies in heredocs or multiline quoted strings; even short SSH status or provisioning blocks belong in standalone script files. Keep structured configuration payloads such as JSON and JQ in separate configuration or template files.

Pass runtime values as arguments or environment variables instead of interpolating them into script source. For remote execution, stream the script to the appropriate interpreter, for example:

    ssh "${SSH_TARGET}" bash -s -- "${CONTAINER}" \
        < "{{ justfile_directory() }}/.just/scripts/container-status.sh"

Preserve quoting, stdin usage, exit codes, and execution order when extracting. Keep secrets out of process arguments. Validate the extracted scripts locally without invoking deployment or provisioning as a test.

Within the requested scope, scan related recipes for remaining heredocs and multiline script or configuration strings rather than stopping after the first named example.

Doc comments for short recipes

When a recipe body is a single line of roughly 120 characters or less, make its doc comment the command itself instead of a descriptive phrase. The command tells the reader exactly what runs.

Before:

# Install dependencies
[group('setup')]
install:
    npm install

After:

# npm install
[group('setup')]
install:
    npm install

Keep a descriptive doc comment for shebang recipes, multi-line recipes, and single-line commands longer than about 120 characters.

Recipe dependencies

When a recipe needs other recipes to run first, prefer declaring them as dependencies over calling just from a recipe body or from a script the recipe runs. Dependencies run once per invocation even when several recipes share them, and avoid spawning a second just process.

Before:

# Build, then run tests
test:
    just build
    ./scripts/run-tests.sh