The cairn-manifest CLI

cairn-manifest regenerates the committed content manifest. It evaluates the cairnManifest virtual module in write mode through the consumer’s own Vite resolution, so the manifest it writes matches what a build would verify against. The bin is a thin shell over an internal writeManifest function, which keeps the write logic testable apart from the command.

The package ships the command in its bin field, so an install puts it on the project’s path.

What it does

The command loads your project’s Vite config, finds the cairnManifest() plugin in it, and reads the content globs, the config module, and the manifest path off that plugin. It then evaluates the write-mode virtual module through your build’s own resolution and writes the serialized manifest to the configured manifestPath, which defaults to /src/content/.cairn/index.json. Because the bin reuses the plugin’s options, it regenerates with exactly the inputs the build verifies against.

Run it after you edit content outside the admin, so the committed manifest tracks the corpus. The cairnManifest plugin verifies the manifest on every build and fails the build on drift, and this command regenerates the manifest to clear that drift.

How to run it

Wire it as a package script and run it from the project root. The showcase wires it as cairn:manifest:

{
  "scripts": {
    "cairn:manifest": "cairn-manifest"
  }
}

npm run cairn:manifest

The command takes no arguments. It uses the current working directory as the project root, so run it from the directory that holds your vite.config.ts.

Exit behavior

On success the command writes the manifest and exits zero. On failure it prints the error message to stderr and exits non-zero. Two common failures carry a clear message: no Vite config found in the working directory, and a Vite config with no cairnManifest() plugin to read the build options from.