Table of Contents

Environment variables

Variables that change how NiteFx behaves. For variables your client code reads (NITE_PUBLIC_*), see Environment variables and path aliases.

Read by NiteFx

Variable Meaning
NITE_REGISTRY The registry for unscoped packages, overriding every other setting.
NITE_CONFIG_DIR The folder for config.json.
NITE_CACHE_DIR The download cache folder.
NITE_DATA_DIR, NITE_STATE_DIR Data and state folders (reserved).
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME Base folders, on every OS, when the NITE_*_DIR variable is not set. nite is appended.
NITE_ESBUILD_PATH Use this esbuild binary instead of downloading one. It must be the version NiteFx expects (nite version prints it).
NITE_SASS_PATH Use this Dart Sass folder (as in Dart Sass's standalone release: src/dart and src/sass.snapshot) instead of downloading one.
NPM_CONFIG_USERCONFIG The user .npmrc to read instead of ~/.npmrc.
COLUMNS Terminal width for CLI tables when output is redirected.
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT Through ASP.NET Core: Development turns on the dev server (see Development and production).
NITE_PUBLIC_* (or your envPrefix) Exposed to client code at build time.

Any variable can also appear in .npmrc values as ${NAME}.

Set by nite watch

Variable Value Effect
DOTNET_WATCH_SUPPRESS_BROWSER_REFRESH 1 dotnet watch does not inject its reload script; NiteFx's client handles the browser. Skipped with --browser-refresh.
DOTNET_WATCH_RESTART_ON_RUDE_EDIT 1 Edits that need a restart restart the app instead of prompting. Skipped with --no-auto-restart.

A value you set yourself is left alone. See Hot reload.

Offline and air-gapped machines

NiteFx downloads three kinds of things: packages, the esbuild binary and (for Sass) the Dart Sass binary. On a machine without registry access:

  1. Point NITE_REGISTRY (or .npmrc) at an internal mirror, which serves all three; or
  2. Pre-fill the cache on a connected machine and copy ~/.cache/nite over; or
  3. Provide the binaries with NITE_ESBUILD_PATH and NITE_SASS_PATH, and commit nite.lock.json so installs need only tarballs (from a mirror or the cache).
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