gweld

A minimal SimpleHttpServer/http.server alternative in Node.js with live-reload.

Supports:

• "Smart" live-reloading to trigger when an request file is changed (i.e reload index.html if it uses main.css, and main.css changes)
• ESM-imports client-side
• Video streaming
• Very quick

Screen recording 2025-07-26 17.57.58.webm

Install

npm install -g @eeue56/gweld

Usage

gweld <folder> [PORT]

or via npx

npx @eeue56/gweld <folder> [PORT]

What

Intended for when working with pure client-side applications.

• Serve .html files with live refresh (if any files in the dir change, reload)
• Serve other files as normal chunked files
• Uses brotili by default
• Uses only Node stdlib

Why

• python3 -m http.server doesn't have a live reload
• All the Node alternatives import like a thousand libraries
• I don't like adding dependencies that aren't needed to provide some core functionality

Name

Gweld is the Welsh for "watch". Gweld is part of the Hiraeth collection.