quartz/docs/cli/build.md

title	aliases
quartz build	build

The build command transforms your Markdown content into a static HTML website. It processes your files through the configured plugins and outputs the final site to a directory of your choice.

Flags

Flag	Shorthand	Description	Default
--directory	-d	The directory containing your Quartz project	Current directory
--verbose	-v	Enable detailed logging for debugging	false
--output	-o	The directory where the built site will be saved	public
--serve		Start a local development server	false
--watch		Rebuild the site when files change	false
--port		The port for the development server	8080
--wsPort		The port for the WebSocket hot-reload server	3001
--baseDir		Set a base directory for the site (e.g. for GitHub Pages)	/
--remoteDevHost		The hostname to use for the development server	localhost
--bundleInfo		Output a JSON file with bundle size information	false
--concurrency		Number of worker threads to use for building	CPU core count

Examples

Basic Build

Generate your site into the public folder.

npx quartz build

Development Mode

Start a local server and watch for changes. This is the most common way to preview your site while writing.

npx quartz build --serve

Custom Output and Port

Build to a specific folder and run the server on a different port.

npx quartz build --serve --output dist --port 3000

Performance Tuning

If you have a very large vault, you can limit the number of concurrent workers to save memory.

npx quartz build --concurrency 2

Development Server

The --serve flag starts a local web server. This server is intended for development and previewing only. It is not designed for production use. For information on how to deploy your site, see hosting.

Hot Reloading

When running with --serve, Quartz automatically enables --watch. It uses a WebSocket connection (on the port specified by --wsPort) to notify your browser when a file has changed. The browser will then automatically refresh to show the latest version of your content.