gxe - Git Execution

Run GitHub repositories directly like npx - but for git repos. Every execution automatically fetches the latest version.

Installation

npm install -g gxe
# or use with npx
npx gxe user/repo [script] [args...]

Usage

# Run default "start" script
gxe user/repo

# Run a specific npm script
gxe user/repo build

# Run a specific npm script with arguments
gxe user/repo test --coverage

# Use with npx (no installation needed)
npx gxe user/repo start

# Local development (use local path)
gxe ./local-path start

How It Works

1. Clones or updates the repository from GitHub to ~/.gxe cache
2. Always fetches the latest version before execution (via git fetch + git reset --hard)
3. Installs dependencies if package.json exists
4. Executes the specified npm script or binary
5. Passes through all output from the script

Technical Details

• Latest always: Each run executes git fetch origin and resets to latest default branch
• Silent: gxe produces no output; only script output is shown
• Tolerant: Projects without package.json or dependencies work fine (install failures are silently ignored)
• Cross-platform: Uses shell: true for Windows/Unix compatibility

Caveats & Gotchas

• No stdout from gxe itself: Dependency installation progress is hidden
• Silent install failures: If npm install fails but dependencies aren't needed, script continues
• Repo deletion: If GitHub repo is deleted but cached, git fetch will fail explicitly
• Default script: If no script specified, runs "start" - fails if it doesn't exist
• No proxy support: Uses system git configuration; no built-in proxy handling
• Windows transformers.js: Special handling with --legacy-peer-deps --ignore-scripts required

Cache

# Clear cache if issues persist
rm -rf ~/.gxe