Command Line

Documentation of the various command line options of the Meteor tool.

---

The following are some of the more commonly used commands in the meteor command-line tool. This is just an overview and does not mention every command or every option to every command; for more details, use the meteor help command.

meteor help

Get help on meteor command line usage.

meteor help

Lists the common meteor commands.

meteor help <command>

Prints detailed help about the specific command.

meteor run

Run a meteor development server in the current project.

meteor run

TIP

This is the default command. Simply running meteor is the same as meteor run.

Features

• Automatically detects and applies changes to your application's source files
• No Internet connection required
• Accesses the application at localhost:3000 by default
• Searches upward from the current directory for the root directory of a Meteor project

Options

Option	Description
--port, -p <port>	Port to listen on (default: 3000). Also uses port N+1 and a port specified by --app-port. Specify as --port=host:port to bind to a specific interface
--open, -o	Opens a browser window when the app starts
--inspect[-brk][=<port>]	Enable server-side debugging via debugging clients. With --inspect-brk, pauses at startup (default port: 9229)
--mobile-server <url>	Location where mobile builds connect (defaults to local IP and port). Can include URL scheme (e.g., https://example.com:443)
--cordova-server-port <port>	Local port where Cordova will serve content
--production	Simulate production mode. Minify and bundle CSS and JS files
--raw-logs	Run without parsing logs from stdout and stderr
--settings, -s <file>	Set optional data for Meteor.settings on the server
--release <version>	Specify the release of Meteor to use
--verbose	Print all output from builds logs
--no-lint	Don't run linters used by the app on every rebuild
--no-release-check	Don't run the release updater to check for new releases
--allow-incompatible-update	Allow packages to be upgraded or downgraded to potentially incompatible versions
--extra-packages <packages>	Run with additional packages (comma separated, e.g., "package-name1, package-name2@1.2.3")
--exclude-archs <archs>	Don't create bundles for certain web architectures (comma separated, e.g., "web.browser.legacy, web.cordova")

Node.js Options

To pass additional options to Node.js, use the SERVER_NODE_OPTIONS environment variable:

Windows PowerShell:

$env:SERVER_NODE_OPTIONS = '--inspect' | meteor run

Linux/macOS:

SERVER_NODE_OPTIONS=--inspect-brk meteor run

Port Configuration Example

meteor run --port 4000

This command:

• Runs the development server on http://localhost:4000
• Runs the development MongoDB instance on mongodb://localhost:4001

INFO

The development server always uses port N+1 for the default MongoDB instance, where N is the application port.

meteor debug

Run the project with the server process suspended for debugging.

Deprecation Notice

The meteor debug command has been superseded by the more flexible --inspect and --inspect-brk command-line flags, which work with run, test, and test-packages commands.

Modern Debugging Approach

# Debug server with auto-attachment
meteor run --inspect

# Debug server and pause at start
meteor run --inspect-brk

Command Usage

meteor debug [--debug-port <port>]

How It Works

• Server process suspends just before the first statement of server code execution
• Debugger listens for incoming connections on port 5858 by default
• Use --debug-port <port> to specify a different port

Setting Breakpoints

• Use the debugger keyword in your code
• Set breakpoints through the debugging client's UI (e.g., in the "Sources" tab)

Debugging Clients

You can use either:

• Web-based Node Inspector
• Command-line debugger

Node Inspector Console Bug

Due to a bug in node-inspector, pressing "Enter" after a command in the Node Inspector Console may not successfully send the command to the server.

Workarounds:

• Use Safari browser
• Use meteor shell to interact with the server console
• Apply the hot-patch available in this comment

Differences from Node.js Flags

The Meteor --inspect and --inspect-brk flags work similarly to Node.js flags with two key differences:

1. They affect the server process spawned by the build process, not the build process itself
2. The --inspect-brk flag pauses execution after server code has loaded but before it begins to execute

Alternative Approach

The same debugging functionality can be achieved by adding the --debug-port <port> option to other Meteor commands:

meteor run --debug-port 5858
meteor test-packages --debug-port 5858

meteor profile

Run a performance profile for your Meteor application to analyze build and bundling performance.

meteor profile [<meteor-run-options>...]

Availability

This command is available from Meteor 3.2 and newer.

Usage

This command monitors the bundler process and tracks key performance metrics to help analyze build and bundling performance.

Options

Option	Description
--size	Monitor both bundle runtime and size
--size-only	Monitor only the bundle size

INFO

All other options from meteor run are also supported (e.g., --settings, --exclude-archs).

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
METEOR_IDLE_TIMEOUT=<seconds>	Set a timeout for profiling	90 seconds
METEOR_CLIENT_ENTRYPOINT=<path>	Set a custom client entrypoint	From package.json
METEOR_SERVER_ENTRYPOINT=<path>	Set a custom server entrypoint	From package.json
METEOR_LOG_DIR=<path>	Set a custom log directory	Default log directory

TIP

The default timeout (90s) is usually enough for each build step to complete. If you encounter errors due to early exits, increase the METEOR_IDLE_TIMEOUT value.

Example Usage

# Basic profile
meteor profile

# Monitor bundle size only
meteor profile --size-only

# Profile with custom settings and timeout
METEOR_IDLE_TIMEOUT=120 meteor profile --settings settings.json

# Profile with custom entrypoints
METEOR_CLIENT_ENTRYPOINT=client/main.js METEOR_SERVER_ENTRYPOINT=server/main.js meteor profile

Customizing the Profiling Process

You can pass any option that works with meteor run to customize the profiling process. This allows you to profile your application under specific conditions that match your deployment environment.

meteor create app-name

Create a new Meteor project in a directory called app-name.

meteor create [options] app-name

Default Behavior

Without any flags, meteor create app-name generates a React project.

Interactive Wizard

If you run meteor create without arguments, Meteor will launch an interactive wizard that guides you through selecting your project name and application type:

  ~ What is the name/path of your app?
  ~ Which skeleton do you want to use?
  Blaze     # To create an app using Blaze
  Full      # To create a more complete scaffolded app
  Minimal   # To create an app with as few Meteor packages as possible
  React     # To create a basic React-based app
  Typescript # To create an app using TypeScript and React
  Vue       # To create a basic Vue3-based app
  Svelte    # To create a basic Svelte app
  Tailwind # To create an app using React and Tailwind 
  Chakra-ui # To create an app Chakra UI and React 
  Solid # To create a basic Solid app 
  Apollo # To create a basic Apollo + React app 
  Bare # To create an empty app

Basic Options

Option	Description
--from <url>	Clone a Meteor project from a URL
--example <name>	Use a specific example template
--list	Show list of available examples
--release <version>	Specify Meteor version (e.g., --release 2.8)
--prototype	Include autopublish and insecure packages for rapid prototyping (not for production)

Application Types

Option	Description	Tutorial / Example
--react	Create a React app (default)	Meteor 3 with React, Meteor 2 with React
--vue	Vue 3 + Tailwind CSS + Vite	Meteor 3 with Vue, Meteor 2 with Vue
--svelte	Svelte	Meteor 2 with Svelte
--blaze	Basic Blaze app	Meteor 2 with Blaze
--solid	Solid + Vite	Meteor 2 with Solid Example
--apollo	React + Apollo (GraphQL)	Meteor 2 with GraphQL
--typescript	React + TypeScript	TypeScript Guide
--tailwind	React + Tailwind CSS	-
--chakra-ui	React + Chakra UI	Simple Tasks Example

Project Structure Options

Option	Description
--minimal	Create with minimal Meteor packages
--bare	Create an empty app (Blaze + MongoDB)
--full	Create a fully scaffolded app with imports-based structure (Blaze + MongoDB)
--package	Create a new package instead of an application

Prototype Mode

The --prototype option adds packages that make development faster but shouldn't be used in production. See the security checklist.

Included Packages

React App (--react or default)

NPM packages:

• @babel/runtime, meteor-node-stubs, react, react-dom

Meteor packages:

• meteor-base, mobile-experience, mongo, reactive-var, standard-minifier-css, standard-minifier-js, es5-shim, ecmascript, typescript, shell-server, hot-module-replacement, static-html, react-meteor-data

Apollo (GraphQL) App (--apollo)

NPM packages:

• @apollo/client, @apollo/server, @babel/runtime, graphql meteor-node-stubs, react, react-dom

Meteor packages:

• meteor-base, mobile-experience, mongo, reactive-var, standard-minifier-css, standard-minifier-js, es5-shim, ecmascript, typescript, shell-server, hot-module-replacement, static-html, apollo, compat:graphql

Blaze App (--blaze)

NPM packages:

• @babel/runtime, meteor-node-stubs, jquery

Meteor packages:

• meteor-base, mobile-experience, mongo, blaze-html-templates, jquery, reactive-var, tracker, standard-minifier-css, standard-minifier-js, es5-shim, ecmascript, typescript, shell-server, hot-module-replacement, blaze-hot

Vue App (--vue)

NPM packages:

• @babel/runtime, meteor-node-stubs, vue, vue-meteor-tracker, vue-router, @types/meteor, @vitejs/plugin-vue, autoprefixer, meteor-vite, postcss, tailwindcss, vite

Meteor packages:

• meteor-base, mobile-experience, mongo, reactive-var, standard-minifier-css, standard-minifier-js, es5-shim, ecmascript, typescript, shell-server, hot-module-replacement, static-html, jorgenvatle:vite

Minimal App (--minimal)

NPM packages:

• @babel/runtime, meteor-node-stubs

Meteor packages:

• meteor, standard-minifier-css, standard-minifier-js, es5-shim, ecmascript, typescript, shell-server, static-html, webapp, ddp, server-render, hot-module-replacement

File Structure

To learn more about the recommended file structure for Meteor apps, check the Meteor Guide.

meteor generate

meteor generate is a command for generating scaffolds for your current project. When ran without arguments, it will ask you what is the name of the model you want to generate, if you do want methods for your api and publications. It can be used as a command line only operation as well.

Important to note: By default, the generator will use JavaScript but if it detects that you have a tsconfig.json file in your project, it will use TypeScript instead.

running

meteor generate customer

It will generate the following code in /imports/api

That will have the following code:

collection.js

import { Mongo } from 'meteor/mongo';

export const CustomerCollection = new Mongo.Collection('customer');

methods.js

import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
import { check } from 'meteor/check';
import { CustomerCollection } from './collection';

export async function create(data) {
  return CustomerCollection.insertAsync({ ...data });
}

export async function update(_id, data) {
  check(_id, String);
  return CustomerCollection.updateAsync(_id, { ...data });
}

export async function remove(_id) {
  check(_id, String);
  return CustomerCollection.removeAsync(_id);
}

export async function findById(_id) {
  check(_id, String);
  return CustomerCollection.findOneAsync(_id);
}

Meteor.methods({
  'Customer.create': create,
  'Customer.update': update,
  'Customer.remove': remove,
  'Customer.find': findById
});

publication.js

import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
import { CustomerCollection } from './collection';

Meteor.publish('allCustomers', function publishCustomers() {
  return CustomerCollection.find({});
});

index.js

export * from './collection';
export * from './methods';
export * from './publications';

Also, there is the same version of these methods using TypeScript, that will be shown bellow.

path option

If you want to create in another path, you can use the --path option in order to select where to place this boilerplate. It will generate the model in that path. Note that is used TypeScript in this example.

meteor generate another-customer --path=server/admin

It will generate in server/admin the another-client code:

collection.ts

import { Mongo } from 'meteor/mongo';

export type AnotherCustomer = {
  _id?: string;
  name: string;
  createdAt: Date;
}

export const AnotherCustomerCollection = new Mongo.Collection<AnotherCustomer>('another-customer');

methods.ts

import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
import { Mongo } from 'meteor/mongo';
import { check } from 'meteor/check';
import { AnotherCustomer, AnotherCustomerCollection } from './collection';

export async function create(data: AnotherCustomer) {
  return AnotherCustomerCollection.insertAsync({ ...data });
}

export async function update(_id: string, data: Mongo.Modifier<AnotherCustomer>) {
  check(_id, String);
  return AnotherCustomerCollection.updateAsync(_id, { ...data });
}

export async function remove(_id: string) {
  check(_id, String);
  return AnotherCustomerCollection.removeAsync(_id);
}

export async function findById(_id: string) {
  check(_id, String);
  return AnotherCustomerCollection.findOneAsync(_id);
}

Meteor.methods({
  'AnotherCustomer.create': create,
  'AnotherCustomer.update': update,
  'AnotherCustomer.remove': remove,
  'AnotherCustomer.find': findById
});

publications.ts

import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
import { AnotherCustomerCollection } from './collection';

Meteor.publish('allAnotherCustomers', function publishAnotherCustomers() {
  return AnotherCustomerCollection.find({});
});

index.ts

export * from './collection';
export * from './methods';
export * from './publications';

---

Using the Wizard

If you run the following command:

meteor generate

It will prompt the following questions.

---

Using your own template

--templatePath

meteor generate feed --templatePath=/scaffolds-ts

Note that this is not a CLI framework inside meteor but just giving some solutions for really common problems out of the box. Check out Yargs, Inquirer or Commander for more information about CLI frameworks.

You can use your own templates for scaffolding your specific workloads. To do that, you should pass in a template directory URL so that it can copy it with its changes.

How to rename things?

Out of the box is provided a few functions such as replacing $$name$$, $$PascalName$$ and $$camelName$$

these replacements come from this function:

Note that scaffoldName is the name that you have passed as argument

const transformName = (name) => {
    return name.replace(/\$\$name\$\$|\$\$PascalName\$\$|\$\$camelName\$\$/g, function (substring, args) {
      if (substring === '$$name$$') return scaffoldName;
      if (substring === '$$PascalName$$') return toPascalCase(scaffoldName);
      if (substring === '$$camelName$$') return toCamelCase(scaffoldName);
    })
  }

How to bring your own templates?

--replaceFn

There is an option called --replaceFn that when you pass in given a .js file with two functions it will override all templating that we have defaulted to use your given function. example of a replacer file

export function transformFilename(scaffoldName, filename) {
  console.log(scaffoldName, filename);
  return filename
}

export function transformContents(scaffoldName, contents, fileName) {
  console.log(fileName, contents);
  return contents
}

If you run your command like this:

 meteor generate feed --replaceFn=/fn/replace.js

It will generate files full of $$PascalCase$$using the meteor provided templates.

A better example of this feature would be the following js file:

const toPascalCase = (str) => {
  if(!str.includes('-')) return str.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + str.slice(1);
  else return str.split('-').map(toPascalCase).join('');
}
const toCamelCase = (str) => {
  if(!str.includes('-')) return str.charAt(0).toLowerCase() + str.slice(1);
  else return str.split('-').map(toPascalCase).join('');
}

const transformName = (scaffoldName, str) => {
    return str.replace(/\$\$name\$\$|\$\$PascalName\$\$|\$\$camelName\$\$/g, function (substring, args) {
      if (substring === '$$name$$') return scaffoldName;
      if (substring === '$$PascalName$$') return toPascalCase(scaffoldName);
      if (substring === '$$camelName$$') return toCamelCase(scaffoldName);
    })

}

export function transformFilename(scaffoldName, filename) {
  return transformName(scaffoldName, filename);
}

export function transformContents(scaffoldName, contents, fileName) {
  return transformName(scaffoldName, contents);
}

meteor login

Logs you in to your Meteor developer account.

Usage:

meteor login [--email]

Details:

• Prompts for your username and password
• Pass --email to log in by email address rather than by username
• You can set METEOR_SESSION_FILE=token.json before meteor login to generate a login session token, avoiding the need to share credentials with third-party service providers

meteor logout

Logs you out of your Meteor developer account.

Usage:

meteor logout

meteor whoami

Displays your currently logged-in username.

Usage:

meteor whoami

meteor deploy site

Deploys the project in your current directory to Galaxy.

Basic Deployment

meteor deploy your-app.meteorapp.com

Deployment Options

Option	Description
--delete, -D	Permanently delete this deployment
--debug	Deploy in debug mode (don't minify, etc.)
--settings, -s <file>	Set optional data for Meteor.settings
--free	Deploy as a free app (with limitations)
--mongo	Create and connect to a free shared MongoDB database
--plan <plan>	Set app plan: professional, essentials, or free
--container-size <size>	Set container size: tiny, compact, standard, double, quad, octa, or dozen
--owner	Specify organization or user account to deploy to
--cache-build	Reuse the build if the git commit hash is the same
--allow-incompatible-update	Allow packages to be upgraded or downgraded to potentially incompatible versions
--deploy-polling-timeout <ms>	Time to wait for build/deploy (defaults to 15 minutes)
--no-wait	Exit after code upload instead of waiting for deploy to complete

Free Deployment

Deploy a free app with MongoDB using:

meteor deploy your-app.meteorapp.com --free --mongo

Quick Start

The combination of --free and --mongo is the fastest way to deploy an app without any additional configuration.

Free App Limitations

• Domain: Must use a Meteor domain (.meteorapp.com, .au.meteorapp.com, or .eu.meteorapp.com)
• Cold Start: App stops after 30 minutes of inactivity and restarts on next connection
• Resources: Limited to one Tiny container (not recommended for production use)

MongoDB Options

Shared MongoDB (Free)

The --mongo option creates a database in Galaxy's shared cluster:

• On first deploy, you'll receive your MongoDB URI in the console
• The URI is also visible in your app's version details in Galaxy
• You must create at least one document to fully instantiate the database
• The database can be accessed using any MongoDB client with the provided URI

WARNING

Free shared MongoDB is not recommended for production applications. The shared cluster doesn't provide backups or restoration resources.

MongoDB Connection Settings

When connecting to the free MongoDB shared cluster using your own settings, include:

{
  "packages": {
    "mongo": {
      "options": {
        "tlsAllowInvalidCertificates": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Why is this needed?

This is necessary because the database provider doesn't have certificates installed on every machine. More about this option here.

Important Notes

• Settings persist between deployments unless explicitly changed
• Your project should be a git repository (commit hash is used to track code changes)
• Free apps and MongoDB shared hosting are not recommended for production use
• Meteor Software reserves the right to stop or remove applications that abuse the free plan

Version Compatibility

• --free and --mongo options were introduced in Meteor 2.0
• --plan option was introduced in Meteor 2.1
• --container-size option was introduced in Meteor 2.4.1
• --cache-build option is available since Meteor 1.11

meteor update

Updates your Meteor application while maintaining compatibility.

Usage:

meteor update
meteor update --patch
meteor update --release <release>
meteor update --packages-only
meteor update [packageName packageName2 ...]
meteor update --all-packages

Update Types:

Command	Description
meteor update	Updates the Meteor release and compatible package versions
meteor update --patch	Updates to the latest patch release (recommended for bug fixes)
meteor update --release <release>	Updates to a specific Meteor release
meteor update --packages-only	Updates only packages, not the Meteor release
meteor update [packageName ...]	Updates specific named packages
meteor update --all-packages	Updates all packages including indirect dependencies

Important Notes:

• Every project is pinned to a specific Meteor release
• By default, updates will not break compatibility between packages
• Patch releases contain minor, critical bug fixes and are highly recommended
• The --release flag can override compatibility checks (may cause warnings)
• The --all-packages option will update all packages to their latest compatible versions, respecting dependency constraints

meteor add package

Adds packages to your Meteor project.

Usage:

meteor add [package1] [package2] ...
meteor add package@version

Version Constraints:

• package@1.1.0 - Version 1.1.0 or higher (but not 2.0.0+)
• package@=1.1.0 - Exactly version 1.1.0
• package@=1.0.0 || =2.0.1 - Either version 1.0.0 or 2.0.1 exactly

Notes:

• By convention, community packages include the maintainer's name (e.g., iron:router)
• To remove a version constraint, run meteor add package without specifying a version

meteor remove package

Removes a package previously added to your Meteor project.

Usage:

meteor remove [package1] [package2] ...

Notes:

• For a list of currently used packages, run meteor list
• This removes the package entirely (to only remove version constraints, use meteor add)
• Transitive dependencies aren't automatically downgraded unless necessary

meteor list

Lists all packages added to your project, including versions and available updates.

Usage:

meteor list [flags]

Flags:

Flag	Description
--tree	Outputs a tree showing package reference hierarchy
--json	Outputs an unformatted JSON string of package references
--weak	Shows weakly referenced dependencies (only with --tree or --json)
--details	Adds more package details (only with --json)

meteor add-platform platform

Adds platforms to your Meteor project.

Usage:

meteor add-platform [platform1] [platform2] ...

Notes:

• Multiple platforms can be added with one command
• After adding, use meteor run <platform> to run on that platform
• Use meteor build to build for all added platforms

meteor remove-platform platform

Removes a previously added platform.

Usage:

meteor remove-platform [platform]

Notes:

• For a list of currently added platforms, use meteor list-platforms

meteor list-platforms

Lists all platforms explicitly added to your project.

Usage:

meteor list-platforms

meteor ensure-cordova-dependencies

Checks if dependencies are installed, and installs them if necessary.

Usage:

meteor ensure-cordova-dependencies

meteor mongo

Opens a MongoDB shell on your local development database.

Usage:

meteor mongo

WARNING

For now, you must already have your application running locally with meteor run. This will be easier in the future.

meteor reset

Resets the current project to a fresh state and clears the local cache.

Usage:

meteor reset [--db]

Flags:

• --db - Also removes the local MongoDB database

WARNING

Reset with --db flag deletes your data! Make sure you do not have any information you care about in your local mongo database by running meteor mongo. From the mongo shell, use show collections and db.<collection>.find() to inspect your data.

WARNING

For now, you cannot run this while a development server is running. Quit all running meteor applications before running this.

meteor build

Package this project up for deployment. The output is a directory with several build artifacts:

• a tarball (.tar.gz) that includes everything necessary to run the application server (see the README in the tarball for details). Using the `--directory` option will produce a `bundle` directory instead of the tarball.
• an unsigned apk bundle and a project source if Android is targeted as a mobile platform
• a directory with an Xcode project source if iOS is targeted as a mobile platform

You can use the application server bundle to host a Meteor application on your own server, instead of deploying to Galaxy. You will have to deal with logging, monitoring, backups, load-balancing, etc, all of which we handle for you if you use Galaxy.

The unsigned apk bundle and the outputted Xcode project can be used to deploy your mobile apps to Android Play Store and Apple App Store.

By default, your application is bundled for your current architecture. This may cause difficulties if your app contains binary code due to, for example, npm packages. You can try to override that behavior with the --architecture flag.

You can set optional data for the initial value of Meteor.settings in your mobile application with the --mobile-settings flag. A new value for Meteor.settings can be set later by the server as part of hot code push.

You can also specify which platforms you want to build with the --platforms flag. Examples: --platforms=android, --platforms=ios, --platforms=web.browser.

meteor lint

Run through the whole build process for the app and run all linters the app uses. Outputs all build errors or linting warnings to the standard output.

meteor search

Searches for Meteor packages and releases, whose names contain the specified regular expression.

meteor show

Shows more information about a specific package or release: name, summary, the usernames of its maintainers, and, if specified, its homepage and git URL.

Get information on meteor recommended releases:

meteor show METEOR

Get information on all meteor releases (including intermediate releases)"

meteor show --show-all METEOR

meteor publish

Publishes your package. To publish, you must cd into the package directory, log in with your Meteor Developer Account and run meteor publish. By convention, published package names must begin with the maintainer's Meteor Developer Account username and a colon, like so: iron:router.

To publish a package for the first time, use meteor publish --create.

Sometimes packages may contain binary code specific to an architecture (for example, they may use an npm package). In that case, running publish will only upload the build to the architecture that you were using to publish it. You can use publish-for-arch to upload a build to a different architecture from a different machine.

If you have already published a package but need to update it's metadata (the content of Package.describe) or the README you can actually achieve this via meteor publish --update.

meteor publish-for-arch

Publishes a build of an existing package version from a different architecture.

Some packages contain code specific to an architecture. Running publish by itself, will upload the build to the architecture that you were using to publish. You need to run publish-for-arch from a different architecture to upload a different build.

For example, let's say you published name:cool-binary-blob from a Mac. If you want people to be able to use cool-binary-blob from Linux, you should log into a Linux machine and then run meteor publish-for-arch name:cool-binary-blob@version. It will notice that you are on a linux machine, and that there is no Linux-compatible build for your package and publish one.

Currently, the supported architectures for Meteor are 32-bit Linux, 64-bit Linux and Mac OS. Galaxy's servers run 64-bit Linux.

meteor publish-release

Publishes a release of Meteor. Takes in a JSON configuration file.

Meteor releases are divided into tracks. While only MDG members can publish to the default Meteor track, anyone can create a track of their own and publish to it. Running meteor update without specifying the --release option will not cause the user to switch tracks.

To publish to a release track for the first time, use the --create-track flag.

The JSON configuration file must contain the name of the release track (track), the release version (version), various metadata, the packages specified by the release as mapped to versions (packages), and the package & version of the Meteor command-line tool (tool). Note that this means that forks of the meteor tool can be published as packages and people can use them by switching to a corresponding release. For more information, run meteor help publish-release.

meteor test-packages

Test Meteor packages, either by name, or by directory. Not specifying an argument will run tests for all local packages. The results are displayed in an app that runs at localhost:3000 by default. If you need to, you can pass the --settings and --port arguments.

meteor admin

Catch-all for miscellaneous commands that require authorization to use.

Some example uses of meteor admin include adding and removing package maintainers and setting a homepage for a package. It also includes various helpful functions for managing a Meteor release. Run meteor help admin for more information.

meteor shell

When meteor shell is executed in an application directory where a server is already running, it connects to the server and starts an interactive shell for evaluating server-side code.

Multiple shells can be attached to the same server. If no server is currently available, meteor shell will keep trying to connect until it succeeds.

Exiting the shell does not terminate the server. If the server restarts because a change was made in server code, or a fatal exception was encountered, the shell will restart along with the server. This behavior can be simulated by typing .reload in the shell.

The shell supports tab completion for global variables like Meteor, Mongo, and Package. Try typing Meteor.is and then pressing tab.

The shell maintains a persistent history across sessions. Previously-run commands can be accessed by pressing the up arrow.

meteor npm

The meteor npm command calls the npm version bundled with Meteor itself.

Additional parameters can be passed in the same way as the npm command (e.g. meteor npm rebuild, meteor npm ls, etc.) and the npm documentation should be consulted for the full list of commands and for a better understanding of their usage.

For example, executing meteor npm install lodash --save would install lodash from npm to your node_modules directory and save its usage in your package.json file.

Using the meteor npm ... commands in place of traditional npm ... commands is particularly important when using Node.js modules that have binary dependencies that make native C calls (like bcrypt) because doing so ensures that they are built using the same libraries.

Additionally, this access to the npm that comes with Meteor avoids the need to download and install npm separately.

meteor node

The meteor node command calls the node version bundled with Meteor itself.

This is not to be confused with meteor shell, which provides an almost identical experience but also gives you access to the "server" context of a Meteor application. Typically, meteor shell will be preferred.

Additional parameters can be passed in the same way as the node command, and the Node.js documentation should be consulted for the full list of commands and for a better understanding of their usage.

For example, executing meteor node will enter the Node.js Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL) interface and allow you to interactively run JavaScript and see the results.

Executing meteor node -e "console.log(process.versions)" would run console.log(process.versions) in the version of node bundled with Meteor.