Build hooks

Baudelaire embeds its own CSS minifier and JavaScript bundler, but sometimes you want a tool it doesn’t ship: Tailwind, PostCSS, Pagefind, an image optimizer. Hooks run external commands around the build.

hooks {
  before "tailwindcss -i assets/app.css -o assets/style.css --minify"
  after  "pagefind --site public"
}

before runs ahead of the asset pipeline, so anything it writes into assets/ is minified and fingerprinted like a first-class asset.
after runs once the finished site is in dist (deploy scripts, post-processors).

Commands run through your shell in the project root and stream their output; a non-zero exit fails the build.

Tailwind, staying single-binary

Tailwind v4 ships a standalone CLI: one binary, no Node. Point a before hook at it and let Baudelaire fingerprint the result:

hooks {
  before "tailwindcss -i assets/app.css -o assets/style.css --minify"
}
serve {
  exclude "assets/style.css"
}

NOTE

In serve, a hook that writes into a watched directory would retrigger the watcher forever. List its output under serve { exclude "..." } (a wax glob) to break the loop, and use serve { include "..." } to watch sources that live outside content, templates, and assets.

This is how Baudelaire stays small: a fast native core for the common path, and a clean escape hatch to the wider ecosystem when you need it.

#feature #assets