fgnass/node-dev

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

2236 stars · 112 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

node-dev is a zero-configuration development tool for Node.js that automatically restarts your application when required files change. Unlike filesystem-scanning tools like nodemon, it hooks into Node's require() function to watch only files actually loaded by the process.

Use cases

• auto-restart node server on file changes
• watch typescript projects with ts-node without config
• avoid watching client-side files that never run on server
• zero-config development reloading for node apps
• watch and other file extensions automatically
• replace nodemon with require-based file watching

When to choose

• you want zero-configuration hot reloading for Node.js
• your project mixes server and client files and you only want server-relevant restarts
• you use TypeScript or non-JS extensions via require and want them watched automatically

When to avoid

• you need to watch files not loaded via require()
• you need ecosystem features like env file loading or custom events offered by nodemon
• you need actively developed tooling with frequent updates

Facets

cli-tool · maturity maintenance

developer-tools cli developer-tools backend cli cross-platform hot-reload file-watching nodemon-alternative typescript zero-configuration command-line nodejs

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