Just Programmer's Manual

Modules^1.19.0

A justfile can declare modules using mod statements.

mod statements were stabilized in just^1.31.0. In earlier versions, you’ll need to use the --unstable flag, set unstable, or set the JUST_UNSTABLE environment variable to use them.

If you have the following justfile:

mod bar

a:
  @echo A

And the following text in bar.just:

b:
  @echo B

bar.just will be included in justfile as a submodule. Recipes, aliases, and variables defined in one submodule cannot be used in another, and each module uses its own settings.

Recipes in submodules can be invoked as subcommands:

$ just bar b
B

Or with path syntax:

$ just bar::b
B

If a module is named foo, just will search for the module file in foo.just, foo/mod.just, foo/justfile, and foo/.justfile. In the latter two cases, the module file may have any capitalization.

Module statements may be of the form:

mod foo 'PATH'

Which loads the module’s source file from PATH, instead of from the usual locations. A leading ~/ in PATH is replaced with the current user’s home directory. PATH may point to the module source file itself, or to a directory containing the module source file with the name mod.just, justfile, or .justfile. In the latter two cases, the module file may have any capitalization.

Environment files are only loaded for the root justfile, and loaded environment variables are available in submodules. Settings in submodules that affect environment file loading are ignored.

Recipes in submodules without the [no-cd] attribute run with the working directory set to the directory containing the submodule source file.

justfile() and justfile_directory() always return the path to the root justfile and the directory that contains it, even when called from submodule recipes.

Modules may be made optional by putting a ? after the mod keyword:

mod? foo

Missing source files for optional modules do not produce an error.

Optional modules with no source file do not conflict, so you can have multiple mod statements with the same name, but with different source file paths, as long as at most one source file exists:

mod? foo 'bar.just'
mod? foo 'baz.just'

Modules may be given doc comments which appear in --list output^1.30.0:

# foo is a great module!
mod foo

$ just --list
Available recipes:
    foo ... # foo is a great module!

Modules are still missing a lot of features, for example, the ability to depend on recipes and refer to variables in other modules. See the module improvement tracking issue for more information.