# Getting Started

# Installation

SAO is a CLI library written in JavaScript, so you can install it from npm:

npm i -g sao

Alternatively, a lot of you may use Yarn instead:

yarn global add sao

Then try the command sao in your terminal, if everything works fine you'd see the CLI usages.

# Using Generators

sao nm my-project

By running this command, SAO will install a generator which in this case is sao-nm from npm, and use it to generate files into my-project directory.

If you want it to generate into current directoy, just omit the second argument like this: sao nm.

A generator could be one of:

• Local directory, e.g. sao ./path/to/my-generator
• An npm package, e.g. sao react will be package sao-react.
  • To use an npm package that does not follow the sao-* naming convention, just prefix the name like this: sao npm:foo, then this will use the foo package instead of sao-foo.
• A git repository, e.g. sao egoist/sao-nm will use github.com/egoist/sao-nm, you can use following prefixes for other git providers:
  • gitlab: For GitLab. e.g. sao gitlab:user/my-generator
  • bitbucket: For BitBucket. e.g. sao bitbucket:user/my-generator
  • direct: For a git repository anywhere else sao direct:git@yourowngitrepo.com:user/my-generator.git

# Versioning

For npm package, you can use a specific verison of the generator:

sao nm@1
sao nm@0.2

The syntax here is the same as npm install.

For git repository, you can use a specific tag, commit or branch of the generator:

sao nm#dev
sao nm#v1.0.0

# Sub-generators

A generator might have sub-generators, you can run them like this:

sao nm:donate

The part after : is a sub-generator called donate, by running this command SAO will run the sub-generator which will add a postinstall script in package.json to show donation URL.

# Update Cached Generator

Once you've run a generator, it will be cached locally in ~/.sao directory. To run the same generator with an up-to-date version, you can add the --update or -u flag.