Tooling

Plume ships a small CLI for checking, formatting, and editor integration. The CLI is useful for standalone Plume users and for editor extensions.

Inkstead Writer embeds Plume, so Writer sites usually run the same capabilities through inkstead-writer theme ....

If you need the standalone CLI first, see Start.

Commands

Check templates:

$plume check$plume check theme$plume check theme/home.plume

Format templates:

$plume format theme$plume format --check theme

Format stdin for editor integrations:

$cat template.plume | plume format --stdin

Run the language server:

$plume language-server

Print the Plume version:

$plume version

Feedback

While writing templates, run check when you want diagnostics and format when you want the file rewritten:

$plume check theme$plume format theme

In CI, use format --check so the build fails when committed templates are not formatted:

$plume format --check theme

Checks

plume check validates:

• Template syntax.
• Component calls and component arguments.
• Named slot content placement.
• Inline Plume client scripts.
• Static style and script file references.
• Static asset and image references the host can see.

Inkstead Writer adds Writer-specific checks for theme paths, generated images, missing image alt text, and site context.

Writer

Inside a Writer site, prefer the site-local wrapper:

$./inkstead-writer theme check$./inkstead-writer theme format$./inkstead-writer theme format --check$./inkstead-writer theme language-server

This uses the Plume version embedded in the Writer version pinned by the site.

Editors

VS Code and Nova extensions are packaged with each Plume release.

They provide:

• Syntax highlighting.
• Snippets.
• Diagnostics.
• Formatting.
• Directive and context completions.
• Document symbols.

The extensions prefer a site-local ./inkstead-writer wrapper when available. Outside Writer sites, they fall back to the standalone plume command on PATH.

Troubleshooting

If diagnostics or formatting do not appear:

• Confirm plume language-server runs in a terminal.
• In an Inkstead Writer site, confirm ./inkstead-writer theme language-server runs from the site root.
• Run plume check path/to/file.plume to separate editor setup issues from template errors.
• Make sure the editor extension can see either the site-local Writer wrapper or the standalone plume command on PATH.