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Use a project-local Lettercamp CLI for a new publication, or install the command globally to run it from any publication folder.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 22.23.4 or newer.
  • npm, included with Node.js, or pnpm.
  • An internet connection to install packages and check for updates. The starter is bundled with the CLI.
Check your Node.js version:

Project-local installation

The setup command installs the CLI automatically:
Inside that project, use npm run dev or npx lettercamp dev. When cloning an existing project with a CLI dependency in package.json, run npm install first.

Global installation

Verify the installation:
The CLI is published as the lettercamp package. You can also run it without a global installation:

Check your version

For a project-local installation, prefix the following version commands with npx, for example npx lettercamp --version. Show the installed CLI version without a network request:
lettercamp -v is equivalent. To compare your installed version with the latest published release on npm, run:

Update the CLI

For a project-local installation, run this from the publication directory:
The command updates the project’s CLI with its existing package manager and keeps an exact version pin. It supports npm, pnpm, Yarn, and Bun. For those other package managers, run pnpm exec lettercamp update, yarn lettercamp update, or bun run lettercamp update respectively. Restart your preview after updating. Review and commit the updated package.json and lockfile if you track your project in Git. Your published site changes only when you deploy again. For a global npm installation:
This updates only the global installation. Outside a project, lettercamp update also works when you run the global npm copy. Neither command updates other projects’ local installations. For a global installation managed by pnpm, use pnpm instead. You can also install the latest release directly:

Breaking changes

Upgrades across a potentially breaking version boundary stop before installing and link to the release notes. After reviewing them, opt in explicitly:
For global npm updates, combine --global with --allow-breaking. This check applies to major releases, minor releases before 1.0, and patch releases before 0.1. If the new release needs a newer Node.js version, update Node.js first.

Update notices

Interactive commands check for updates in the background at most once every 24 hours. A notice can appear on a later invocation, at most once daily, with the command to update your installation. Lettercamp never installs an update automatically. An offline check does not delay or fail your command. Background checks and notices are skipped in CI, redirected output, JSON output, and help or version flags. To disable them in your shell, set LETTERCAMP_NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1. NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1 is also supported. The explicit lettercamp version and lettercamp update commands still check when requested.