CLI

The IC Reactor CLI (@ic-reactor/cli) helps you generate React hooks and TypeScript declarations from your Candid files. It’s useful if you’re not using Vite or want more control over the generation process.

Installation

pnpm

bash pnpm add -D @ic-reactor/cli

npm

bash npm install -D @ic-reactor/cli

yarn

bash yarn add -D @ic-reactor/cli

bun

bash bun add -D @ic-reactor/cli

Commands

init

Initialize the configuration file (ic-reactor.json) in your project root.

npx ic-reactor init

Options:

• -y, --yes: Skip prompts and use defaults.
• -o, --out-dir <path>: Output directory for generated hooks (default: src/declarations).

generate

Regenerates hooks and declarations for all configured canisters. Run this whenever your .did files change. It creates an index.ts file in each canister directory with fully typed hooks.

npx ic-reactor generate

Options:

• -c, --canister <name>: Generate only for a specific canister.
• --clean: Clean output directory before generating.

Configuration

The ic-reactor.json file controls the CLI behavior.

{
  "outDir": "src/declarations",
  "clientManagerPath": "../../clients",
  "canisters": {
    "backend": {
      "didFile": "src/backend/backend.did"
    }
  }
}

Options

Key	Type	Description
outDir	string	Base output directory for generated files (required).
canisters	Record<string, CanisterConfig>	Map of canister names to configurations (required).
clientManagerPath	string	Path to a custom ClientManager instance (optional).

Canister Config

Key	Type	Description
didFile	string	Path to the .did file (required).
name	string	Canister name.
outDir	string	Override output directory for this canister.
clientManagerPath	string	Override client manager path.
canisterId	string	Optional fixed canister ID.

Examples

• Codegen in Action: Comparison between CLI and Vite plugin generated code.
• TypeScript Demo: Using the CLI to generate pure TypeScript reactors without React.