Dry Run Mode

Overview

Dry-run mode lets you see exactly what DevFlow would do — without modifying your project.

devflow --dry-run
# or
devflow --all --dry-run

What Dry Run Shows

In dry-run mode, DevFlow runs through the entire flow — detection, module selection, planning — but instead of writing files and installing packages, it logs what would happen:

[dry-run] ℹ Would create .husky/pre-commit
[dry-run] ℹ Would create .husky/commit-msg
[dry-run] ℹ Would create commitlint.config.mjs
[dry-run] ℹ Would create eslint.config.js
[dry-run] ℹ Would merge into package.json: {
  "devDependencies": {
    "husky": "^9.0.0",
    "eslint": "^9.0.0"
  }
}
[dry-run] ℹ Would add script "prepare": "husky"
[dry-run] ℹ Would add script "lint": "eslint ."

Use Cases

• Auditing — see exactly what modules will generate before committing to changes
• CI validation — run DevFlow in dry-run mode in CI to verify configs are up-to-date
• Learning — understand what each module does without affecting your project
• Debugging — troubleshoot why a module generates unexpected output

Combining with Other Flags

# Dry run the full preset
devflow --all --dry-run

# Dry run a single module
devflow --only eslint --dry-run

# Dry run with verbose output
devflow --all --dry-run --verbose

Programmatic Usage

The dry-run flag sets a global state that all file utilities respect:

• writeFileSafe() — logs instead of writing
• mergePackageJson() — logs the merge payload
• Package installation — skipped entirely
• Commands — not executed