flutterwatch

A command-line application that allows hot-reload/hot-restart when there is file change in directory.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/799d70fc-328f-4ce8-a90c-ddcf09cdca66

Motivation

Some people don't use IDEs (vscode, android studio, intellij) to develop Flutter apps and rely on flutter run command. This CLI tool wraps the flutter command and watches the ./lib directory by default for any changes and auto hot-reload flutter.

Installation

Global

dart pub global activate flutterwatch

Local project

dart pub add flutterwatch

Usage

Usage: flutterwatch <flags> -- [flutter arguments]
# dart run flutterwatch (if added locally)
-h, --help           Print this usage information.
-r, --hot-reload     Hot reload when there is a code change.
                     (defaults to on)
-R, --hot-restart    Hot restart when there is a code change.
-d, --dir            Directory to watch for changes.
                     (defaults to "./lib")
-v, --version        Print the cli version.
# Example: flutterwatch -- run -d emulator-5554

Libraries