Installation

DocuBook Flame runs on Bun >= 1.1.0, Node.js >= 20.11, or Deno >= 2.x. The toolchain and CLI work identically across all three — pick the runtime you already use.

Quick Setup

mkdir my-docs && cd my-docs
bun add @docubook/flame
bunx flame init
bun run dev

mkdir my-docs && cd my-docs
npm install @docubook/flame
npx flame init
npm run dev

mkdir my-docs && cd my-docs
deno add npm:@docubook/flame
deno run -A npm:@docubook/flame init
deno task dev

Deno may show a freshness/cache warning on first run. If you see one, set DENO_ALLOW_NEWER=true deno task dev to bypass it.

flame init only scaffolds files — compile-lib.mjs runs lazily on first flame dev or flame build, not during init. This step precompiles TypeScript sources to .docu/lib/ so Node.js and Deno can execute them. In a published npm package .docu/lib is already included, so the lazy compile never runs.

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

CLI Reference

flame dev        # Start development server with HMR
flame build      # Build for production
flame preview    # Preview production build
flame deploy              # Build + prepare for GitHub Pages
flame deploy --docker     # Build + generate Docker files
flame init              # Scaffold a new project
flame clean             # Clean build artifacts
flame --help            # Show all commands

The CLI auto-detects your runtime and dispatches to the correct server implementation automatically — flame dev uses Bun.serve on Bun, Node HTTP on Node.js, and Deno HTTP on Deno. Override detection with the FLAME_RUNTIME environment variable:

FLAME_RUNTIME=node flame dev    # Force Node runtime
FLAME_RUNTIME=deno flame dev    # Force Deno runtime

Scaffolded projects have these scripts in package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "flame dev",
    "build": "NODE_ENV=production flame build",
    "preview": "flame preview",
    "deploy": "flame deploy"
  }
}

When scaffolding on Deno, flame init also generates a deno.json with nodeModulesDir: "auto" and sets the scripts to use the npm: specifier.

Global Installation

bun add -g @docubook/flame

npm install -g @docubook/flame

After global install, run:

flame init
flame dev

Runtime Notes

The precompiled .docu/lib directory is gitignored in monorepo clones and generated automatically on first flame dev or flame build for non-Bun runtimes.