JekyllNet now has a fuller command-line story. That matters because a generator becomes much easier to evaluate once local iteration, preview, packaging, and CI all fit together.

The core commands

dotnet run --project .\JekyllNet.Cli -- build --source .\sample-site
dotnet run --project .\JekyllNet.Cli -- watch --source .\docs
dotnet run --project .\JekyllNet.Cli -- serve --source .\docs --port 5055

• build is the deterministic generation step.
• watch is for content or template editing loops.
• serve is for local preview with a stable HTTP endpoint.

Structured log output

Recent improvements have made CLI output much more readable:

• Emoji status indicators: ✅ for success, ❌ for errors, 🚀 for startup, 👀 for watching, 📝 for changes
• Smart time formatting: Shows ms for milliseconds, s for seconds, mm:ss for longer durations
• Multi-line format: Easier to scan at a glance

Example output:

✅ Build complete: D:\projects\my-site (elapsed 00:00:02.542)
👀 Watching for changes in D:\projects\my-site
📝 Change detected: _posts\2024-01-01-post.md
✅ Rebuild complete (elapsed 00:00:01.234)

Tooling and distribution

The repository now also includes:

• dotnet tool packaging metadata for the CLI
• a reusable GitHub Action for site builds
• GitHub Actions for CI, GitHub Pages, NuGet publishing, and release artifacts
• winget packaging templates
• README guidance for installation and upgrades

Reusable GitHub Action

The standalone JekyllNet/action repository now exposes a build action, so another repository can call JekyllNet without copying the workflow steps by hand.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - uses: JekyllNet/action@v2.5
        with:
          source: ./docs
          destination: ./artifacts/docs-site
          upload-artifact: "true"
          artifact-name: docs-site

The action now publishes the v2.5 tag, which installs JekyllNet 0.2.5 by default.

The most useful inputs are source, destination, drafts, future, unpublished, posts-per-page, dotnet-configuration, and the optional artifact upload controls.

NuGet publishing workflow

The repository also now carries .github/workflows/publish-dotnet-tool.yml for publishing the CLI as the JekyllNet global tool package to both NuGet.org and GitHub Packages.

That workflow:

• triggers on v* tags
• also supports manual dispatch with an explicit version input
• runs dotnet test before packing
• packs with the resolved version instead of relying on the static project file version
• pushes to NuGet.org with the repository secret NUGET_API_KEY
• also pushes the same package to https://nuget.pkg.github.com/JekyllNet/index.json with GITHUB_TOKEN

A practical local routine

1. Run watch against the site you are editing.
2. Use serve when you want a stable preview URL.
3. Run dotnet test .\JekyllNet.slnx before landing changes.