🔥 gohot

gohot is a hot-reloading tool for Go projects that watches your source files and automatically recompiles and restarts your application when files change.

Ideal for fast development cycles in the Go ecosystem — no more manual builds or restarts!

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🚀 Features

• 🔁 Auto-reload on .go file changes (or any extension)
• 📂 Directory and file extension filtering
• 🧠 Smart CPU usage: uses go run or compiles to binary based on your system
• ⚙️ Config file support (gohot.yaml, gohot.json, etc.)
• ✅ Config validation before execution
• ⏱️ Debounce file system events to avoid noisy reloads
• 🎯 Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)

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📦 Installation

go install github.com/ableinc/gohot@latest

or clone locally

git clone https://github.com/yourname/gohot
cd gohot
go build -ldflags="-w -s" -o gohot ./cmd/gohot/gohot.go

🧠 Usage

gohot --path ./cmd/api --ext .go,.yaml --entry main.go --out ./build/app

Flag/Command	Alias	Description	Default
--path	-p	Directory to watch	./
--ext	-e	File extensions to watch (comma-separated)	.go,.yaml
--entry	-m	Main Go file to run	(auto-detect)
--out	-o	Output binary name/path	./appb
--debounce	-d	Debounce time in ms	500
init	i	create gohot.yaml file

⚙️ Configuration File (gohot.yaml)

# gohot.yaml
path: ./
ext: .go,.yaml
entry: main.go
out: ./appb
debounce: 500

Supported Formats

• gohot.yaml

• gohot.json

• gohot.toml

Files are loaded automatically from:

• Current directory

• ~/.gohot/gohot.yaml

CLI flags override config file values.

Examples

Watch a directory and recompile a binary

gohot --path ./server --entry main.go --out ./bin/server

Use only go run for simple dev apps

gohot --entry ./main.go

Custom file types (e.g. .go, .html, .env)

gohot --ext .go,.html,.env

🚨 Validation

Before starting, gohot validates:

• Watched path exists

• File extensions start with .

• Main file (if set) exists and is a .go file

• Debounce is positive

• Output path is not a directory

📋 TODO / Future Ideas

• --init to create a sample gohot.yaml

• Export merged config with --export

• Logging to .gohot.log

• WebSocket/HTTP integration for browser auto-refresh

🧑‍💻 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Please follow idiomatic Go style and document your changes.