Use the command-line interface

The top-level command shape is:

netsuke [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]
netsuke [OPTIONS] build [TARGETS]...

Global options must appear before the subcommand. For example, netsuke --color always build is valid; netsuke build --color always is not.

The commands are:

• build [TARGETS]...: generate Ninja and build the named targets. With no targets, use configured defaults and then manifest defaults.
• clean: generate a temporary Ninja file and run ninja -t clean.
• graph: render the build graph as DOT or self-contained HTML without invoking Ninja.
• generate: write Ninja without invoking it. Outside JSON mode, the generated Ninja manifest is the only content written to stdout; use --output <FILE> to write it to a file instead. In JSON mode (--json) the manifest is carried in the result document's result.content field instead.

Running netsuke without a subcommand is the same as netsuke build with no explicit targets. A bare target such as netsuke hello is not accepted; use netsuke build hello.

Important global options include:

• -f, --file <FILE>
• -C, --directory <DIR>
• --config <FILE>
• -j, --jobs <N> (accepts 1 to 64)
• -v, --verbose
• --locale <LOCALE>
• --no-input
• --json
• --color <auto|always|never>
• --emoji <auto|always|never>
• --progress <auto|always|never>
• --accessibility <auto|on|off>
• --default-target <TARGET>

Run netsuke --help or netsuke <command> --help for the complete current surface.

Netsuke's help text, validation errors, progress labels, and runtime diagnostics are translated. The locale is chosen by the first source that yields a valid BCP 47 tag, and which sources are available depends on when the message is rendered.

Help, usage, and command-line validation errors are produced before any configuration file is read, so they use the --locale flag, then NETSUKE_LOCALE, then the system default, then en-US. Diagnostics, progress, and status output are rendered after the configuration merge, so they consult the configuration file's locale setting as well, between NETSUKE_LOCALE and the system default.

System values are normalized first, so en_GB.UTF-8 is understood as en-GB.

Table 1: Locales Netsuke ships

en-US is the source locale. Any message a translation has not yet covered falls back to the English text rather than disappearing.

A requested tag resolves by these rules, in order:

1. The exact tag, if a catalogue carries it.
2. A script or region rule for that language. Bare es and es-ES use es-ES, and every other Spanish region uses es-419; bare pt and every Portuguese region except Brazil use pt-PT; Chinese resolves by script, with zh-CN, zh-SG, and zh-MY taking Simplified and zh-TW, zh-HK, and zh-MO taking Traditional; English outside the United States uses en-GB; and no resolves to nb.
3. The only catalogue for that language, so fr-CA uses fr and de-AT uses de.
4. en-US, for anything still unmatched.

Regional and script variants that differ in substance are never merged: asking for pt-BR never yields European Portuguese, and asking for zh-TW never yields Simplified Chinese.

Manual pages and PowerShell help shipped in releases are generated in en-US only. Translated copy reaches users through the running binary, which embeds every catalogue.

--directory changes manifest lookup, project configuration discovery and relative output paths:

netsuke --directory /path/to/project build

An explicit --config path remains relative to the shell's original working directory.

These commands cover the non-default utility workflows:

netsuke clean
netsuke graph --output build.dot
netsuke graph --html --output graph.html
netsuke generate
netsuke generate --output build.ninja

graph is rendered in-process and does not require Ninja. DOT goes to stdout unless --output is supplied. HTML output contains a server-rendered SVG, a textual outline and a <noscript> DOT representation.

generate writes Ninja without running it. With no --output, stdout contains only the generated Ninja manifest. With --output <FILE>, Netsuke writes the manifest to that file and leaves stdout empty.

clean removes file outputs tracked by Ninja. Phony targets and actions do not represent files and are not removed.