The Angular CLI

The Angular CLI is the workhorse that handles scaffolding, the dev server, production builds, tests, and code generation.

4 min read Level 1/5 #angular#cli#tooling

What you'll learn

Run ng serve, ng build, and ng test
Generate code with ng generate
Upgrade dependencies with ng update

The ng command is the front door to every Angular workflow. Most teams never touch webpack or Vite configs directly — they let the CLI handle it.

Running the App

ng serve          # dev server with HMR at :4200
ng serve --port 5000 --open
ng build          # production bundle into dist/
ng test           # unit tests (Karma/Jasmine or Jest)
ng e2e            # end-to-end tests (if configured)

ng build runs in production mode by default in Angular 20+: tree-shaken, minified, with hashed file names ready to deploy to any static host.

Generating Code

The biggest time-saver. ng generate (alias ng g) creates files with the right boilerplate and wires them into the imports they need.

ng g component features/user-card
ng g service core/api
ng g directive shared/autofocus
ng g pipe shared/truncate
ng g guard auth/auth

The shorthand ng g c user-card works too. Generated components are standalone by default in Angular 20+.

Updating

ng update                       # see what's outdated
ng update @angular/core @angular/cli

ng update doesn’t just bump versions — it runs migration schematics that rewrite your code to match newer APIs. That’s how you survive major upgrades without sobbing.

Project Structure →