nuxt dev

npx nuxt dev [ROOTDIR] [--cwd=<directory>] [--logLevel=<silent|info|verbose>] [--dotenv=<path>...] [--envName=<environment>] [-e, --extends=<layer-name>...] [--inspect] [--inspect-brk] [--tui] [--clear] [-f, --fork] [-p, --port=<port>] [--takeover] [--strictPort] [-h, --host=<host>] [-o, --open] [--open.url=<url|path>] [--clipboard] [--qr] [--tunnel] [--public] [--publicURL=<url>] [--https] [--https.cert=<path>] [--https.key=<path>] [--https.pfx=<path>] [--https.passphrase=<passphrase>] [--https.validityDays=<days>] [--https.domains=<domain>...] [--profile=<verbose>]

The dev command starts a development server with hot module replacement at http://localhost:3000

Arguments

Options

The port and host can also be set via NUXT_PORT, NITRO_PORT, PORT, NUXT_HOST, NITRO_HOST or HOST environment variables.

This command sets process.env.NODE_ENV to development.

Interactive terminal UI

In an interactive terminal, nuxt dev renders a pinned panel: the server URLs, startup progress, the current status and a row of shortcuts, with logs folded above it. It falls back to a plain stream of logs when the output is not a terminal, in CI, when a debugger is attached, or when the terminal is too small.

Inside a view, y copies the selected row and shift-y copies every row the filters and search leave, keeping the newest when there is too much to paste. In the info view, shift-y copies the nuxt info table instead.

Tracing a request

In the network view (n), select a request and press enter to see where its time went. The trace draws everything the server did for that request on one timeline: route middleware, server route handlers, Nuxt plugins, hooks, data fetching, rendering, and requests your app made to other servers. Below the timeline, it lists how long Vite spent compiling modules for the request, broken down by Vite plugin and slowest module, followed by the logs the request produced.

The trace is built from the tracing channels that Nuxt and Nitro publish, so how much it shows depends on your versions. nuxt dev turns on the tracingChannel option for you; set tracingChannel: false in your nuxt.config to opt out.

Disabling the UI

Pass --no-tui or set NUXT_TUI=plain to stream logs instead. You can also force the UI on by passing NUXT_TUI=1 (though this doesn't do anything if the output is piped or redirected).

The plain output offers a smaller set of shortcuts: r to restart, o to open, u to show the URLs, qr for a QR code, copy to copy the URL, c to clear the console, h for help and q to quit.

Restarts

When the dev server reloads or restarts it says what caused it, and a change to nuxt.config also lists the keys that actually differ, so a restart triggered by a formatting-only edit is distinguishable from one that changed your configuration. A reload happens in place; a restart replaces the process, which is what a change to nuxt.config or to an installed dependency needs.

Taking over a running dev server

A dev server records itself in nuxt.lock inside your build directory, so a second nuxt dev for the same project reports the one already running instead of racing it for the port. Pass --takeover to stop it and start in its place, or set NUXT_IGNORE_LOCK=1 to run a second server anyway (unsupported).

The same lock file is how nuxt curl and nuxt task find the server to talk to.

HTTPS

--https serves over TLS, generating a locally-trusted certificate with mkcert when it is installed and a self-signed one otherwise. --https.cert and --https.key use a certificate you already have, and --https.pfx with --https.passphrase a PKCS#12 keystore.

Debugging

--inspect opens the Node.js inspector for your server code: server routes, middleware and server-side rendering, which run in a Nitro worker thread. It accepts an optional [host:]port and defaults to 127.0.0.1:9229, so Chrome DevTools (chrome://inspect) and most editors find it without configuration. Your debugger reconnects automatically when the server reloads.

Debugging the CLI

nuxt.config, modules and build hooks run in the CLI process instead, which gets its own inspector on the next port (9230 by default). Add localhost:9230 as a target in chrome://inspect (Configure...) or point your editor at it.

To debug code that runs while Nuxt is loading, use --inspect-brk. The CLI process then waits for a debugger to attach to the next port before loading Nuxt:

npx nuxt dev --inspect-brk

--profile writes a V8 CPU profile to nuxt-dev.cpuprofile in your project when the process exits. --profile=verbose also prints a full report to the console.

Environment variables