The Ember CLI

ember-cli scaffolds code, runs the dev server, builds for production, and runs tests — the most opinionated CLI in the JS ecosystem.

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

What you'll learn

Run ember serve, ember build, and ember test
Generate code with ember g (components, routes, services)
Install addons with ember install

ember-cli is the central tool for every Ember workflow. One binary covers dev server, production build, tests, generators, and addon installation.

Serve, Build, Test

ember serve                        # dev server at :4200
ember build --environment=production
ember test                         # run QUnit tests once
ember test --server                # watch mode for tests

ember build produces a static dist/ folder you can host anywhere — S3, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages.

Generators

Generators create files in the right place with the right conventions:

ember g component my-button --component-class=@glimmer/component
ember g route posts
ember g service auth
ember g model post

Each generator creates the source file and an associated test. Use ember destroy (alias ember d) to remove everything a generator created.

Addons

Addons are npm packages with extra Ember integration. Install with ember install so post-install blueprints can run:

ember install ember-cli-mirage     # API mocking
ember install ember-concurrency    # task primitives
ember install @ember/render-modifiers

Use ember help to discover every subcommand.

Project Structure →