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Engineering

The Commands You Run Every Day

7 min read

Long CLI commands are easy to forget and hard to share. Scripts in package.json wrap them as short names the whole team runs the same way: yarn dev, yarn test, yarn build.

Vocabulary

Term Meaning
Script A named shell command in package.json
Lifecycle script Built-in names like start, test that npm/yarn recognize
Chained script Runs multiple commands: yarn lint && yarn test

Steps

How to add a script

json

Run with yarn dev, yarn build, or yarn check.

Reference — development

Command What it does
yarn dev Hot-reload dev server on port 3000
yarn dev:stack Docker Postgres + migrate + dev server — best first-day setup
yarn preview Build production output and preview locally

dev:stack runs docker compose up — it starts Postgres, applies migrations, and launches the app in one foreground process.

Reference — database

Command What it does
yarn db:generate Regenerate Prisma client after schema changes
yarn db:migrate Create and apply migrations in development
yarn db:seed Load starter/demo content
yarn db:studio Open visual browser for tables and rows
yarn db:reset Wipe DB and re-run all migrations

Reference — quality

Command What it does
yarn lint ESLint — catch bugs and style issues
yarn format Prettier check
yarn test All Vitest projects (unit + Storybook)
yarn test:unit Logic tests in jsdom
yarn test:storybook Component tests in headless Chromium
yarn storybook Component catalog on port 6006

Reference — production

Command What it does
yarn build Production bundle
yarn start Serve built app (no migrations)
yarn start:prod Run migrations, then serve — used by Docker and Railway

Common pitfalls

  • Running raw prisma commands with wrong flags — use the wrapped scripts.
  • Using yarn start in production without migrations — schema falls behind code.
  • Forgetting db:generate after pulling schema changes — TypeScript errors everywhere.

Verify it works

Run yarn dev:stack. Browser opens at localhost:3000. Prisma Studio at yarn db:studio shows seeded rows.

Takeaway

Scripts are team vocabulary. Wrap anything you run daily so nobody memorizes flags.