Technical details

Nue consists of four projects within Nue monorepo as follows:

Nuekit

Nuekit (or simply Nue) is a standards-first web framework providing:

• Website generation for both MPA and SPA

• Development server with watch mode

• Universal hot-reloading for all asset types

• Seamless MPA/SPA routing and view transitions

• Component mounting and hydration

• CSS/JS optimization and minification

External dependencies:

• diff-dom

• js-yaml

Nue JS

HTML-based template engine that handles:

• Server-side rendering

• Client-side reactivity

• Isomorphic components

• Template parsing and compilation

External dependencies:

• htmlparser2

Nuemark

Extended Markdown processor providing:

• Content parsing and rendering

• Rich layouts and sections

• Core components and tags

• Data model access

External dependencies:

• js-yaml

Glow

Syntax highlighter for Markdown code blocks:

• Language detection

• Token parsing

• HTML rendering

• CSS theming

No external dependencies

How it works

Nuekit processes your project through the following steps:

1. File System Scanning

   • Scans all directories and files

   • Identifies content files (Markdown, YAML)

   • Detects SPA entry points: {appdir}/index.html

   • Catalogs all assets (CSS, JS, layouts, components, images)

   • Creates content collections

   • Maps URL structure from directory hierarchy

2. Asset Processing

   • Identifies shared/global resources

   • Detects includes and excludes for each app and page

   • Maps dependencies between content and assets

   • Maps dependencies between components and layout modules

   • Processes CSS (nested selectors, advanced functions)

   • Compiles client-side (reactive) components

3. Content/SPA Processing

   • Builds content models for each Markdown file

   • Sets up component mounting

   • Parses YAML data and configuration

   • Parses all components and layout modules

   • Inlines CSS when configured for site/app/page

   • Renders parsed Markdown with dependent data and assets

   • Builds SPA entry points with dependencies

Development vs Production

In development mode, Nue runs a dedicated server optimized for:

• Hot Module Replacement

• MPA routing

• Real-time error reporting

• Instant feedback

For production, Nue:

• Processes and optimizes all assets

• Minifies CSS and JavaScript

• Generates static files

• Enables production preview through server