theme-kit cli reference

theme-kit is the command-line tool provided by @microfeed/theme-kit. It creates, validates, tests, and previews a theme package on your computer. It does not deploy microfeed, install a theme into an instance, or activate a live theme.

Use yarn manage theme from a microfeed checkout for instance operations such as export, install, update, activation, rollback, and deletion. See Themes and website code for the authoring workflow, storage model, and Vite, Webpack, Tailwind, D1, and R2 examples.

Run the CLI

Choose the form that matches where you are working:

Where you are working	Recommended command
Inside a generated theme repository	Install dependencies, then use yarn theme-kit … or its yarn validate, yarn test, and yarn preview scripts
One command without installation	yarn dlx @microfeed/theme-kit …
Regular use across unrelated directories	Install globally, then use theme-kit …

Inside a generated theme repository, install its dependencies and use the project-local executable:

yarn install
yarn theme-kit --help

The generated repository also provides shorter scripts:

yarn validate
yarn test
yarn preview

For one-off use without an existing theme repository, run the published package directly:

yarn dlx @microfeed/theme-kit --help

To install one shared executable for regular use across directories:

npm install --global @microfeed/theme-kit
theme-kit --help

The package requires Node.js 22.12 or newer. The examples use Yarn 4, but npm and pnpm can invoke the same executable.

Modern Yarn does not provide the older yarn global add workflow. A project-local dependency is preferable when a theme repository should pin the tool version; global installation is convenient for starting or inspecting themes outside a repository.

Theme repositories created by earlier releases may still use the microfeed-theme executable name. It remains available as a compatibility alias, but new repositories and documentation use theme-kit.

Command summary

Command	Purpose	Changes the live site?
init <directory>	Create a standalone generic theme package	No
validate <directory>	Validate the manifest, six theme files, and assets	No
test <directory>	Render and check every built-in and package fixture	No
preview <directory>	Start an isolated local preview server	No
fixture pull <url>	Save a public JSON Feed as a local fixture	No
help [command]	Show general or command-specific help	No

Global options

theme-kit <command> [options]

Option	Meaning
-h, --help	Show general help. Place it after a command for command-specific help.
-v, --version	Print the installed @microfeed/theme-kit version.

Examples:

theme-kit --help
theme-kit validate --help
theme-kit help fixture pull
theme-kit --version

Successful commands exit with status 0. Invalid commands, invalid packages, failed network requests, and failed checks exit with status 1 and write a diagnostic to standard error. validate --json and test --json provide machine-readable success and error output for coding agents and CI.

init

theme-kit init <directory>

Creates a generic theme package containing the manifest, six required theme files, schemas, fixtures, local package scripts, THEME.md, and the develop-microfeed-theme agent skill.

• Missing parent directories are created.
• The destination must be empty; existing files are never overwritten.
• When <directory> is omitted, the destination defaults to ./microfeed-theme.
• The command does not initialize Git. Review the generated files before creating and publishing a standalone repository.

To initialize from a specific microfeed instance’s active theme instead, use yarn manage theme init from a microfeed checkout.

validate

theme-kit validate <directory> [--json]

Loads the complete installable package and validates:

• Manifest format, semantic version, and microfeed compatibility.
• The six declared text-file paths and their size limits.
• Mustache templates and the complete RSS XSL stylesheet.
• Declared asset paths, symlinks, file types, per-file limits, and total limits.
• Missing, undeclared, absolute, or traversing paths.

<directory> defaults to the current directory. Human output prints the validated package metadata. JSON success output has this shape:

{"assets":0,"ok":true,"packageId":"example.my-theme","version":"0.1.0"}

On failure, --json writes an object containing ok: false and a diagnostics array.

test

theme-kit test <directory> [--json]

Validates the package, then renders these built-in fixtures:

• empty
• minimal
• rich
• pagination
• media
• missing_optional
• authors_and_subscriptions
• hostile_html

It then renders every .json file under the package’s fixtures/ directory. Each case is rendered twice to detect nondeterministic output. The command parses feed and item HTML and verifies that the rendered RSS stylesheet is valid XML. Themes are trusted code, so this command checks output structure and determinism rather than sanitizing intentional HTML or JavaScript.

<directory> defaults to the current directory. With --json, success output contains ok: true and one {fixture, ok} entry for every completed case.

preview

theme-kit preview <directory> [options]

Starts an isolated server on a random local address and prints the URL to open in a browser. The preview provides feed, item, and rendered RSS views plus a mobile/desktop viewport switch. It uses the production theme renderer, serves declared assets from a local /assets/ route, disables caching, and applies a sandboxed content security policy.

Option	Meaning
--fixture <name-or-file>	Use one built-in fixture name or the path to a JSON fixture file.
--feed-url <url>	Download a public microfeed JSON Feed and use it as preview data.

When neither option is supplied, preview uses the minimal fixture. Use only one data option at a time. <directory> defaults to the current directory.

The server continues running until you stop it with Ctrl+C. Previewing never installs or activates the package.

fixture pull

theme-kit fixture pull <json-feed-url> --output <file>

Downloads a public JSON Feed, validates it against the theme render context, and writes formatted JSON to <file>.

• <json-feed-url> must be publicly reachable; the command never signs in to an Admin API.
• --output is required.
• The output file must not already exist and its parent directory must already exist.
• Review copied titles, descriptions, media URLs, and other content before committing the fixture to a public repository.

Use the saved path with preview --fixture <file>, or keep it under fixtures/ so test includes it automatically.

Typical local sequence

theme-kit validate . --json
theme-kit test . --json
theme-kit preview . --fixture media

After the local checks pass, increment the theme’s semantic version and commit both source files and generated runtime files. Installation and activation are separate yarn manage theme operations performed from a microfeed checkout.