Guard Plugins

NOTE: Guard maintainers are not responsible for the quality or suitability of the plugins below. (Though, some plugins are maintained by Guard core developers.)

Ordering is generally by popularity/user-friendliness/completeness/support/active-development. Disputes about order should be resolved by project "star" count.

NOTE: if any plugins are broken or outdated, try the following:

1. find the gem on rubygems.org, then go to the homepage
2. file an issue there and wait up to a few days for the author to respond
3. if the plugin author isn't responding CC a Guard maintainer in the issue (e.g. me: @e2)

NOTE: some plugin authors work on their own forks instead of the forks in the Guard organization. Please update the links below if they point to the wrong/outdated fork.

Popular / Featured / Well supported

Plugin	When to use
guard-bundler	installs/updates gems when Gemfile changes
guard-rspec	Smart/incremental RSpec runner
guard-minitest	runs Minitest and Test/Unit tests
guard-cucumber	Reruns changed/affected Cucumber Features
guard-zeus	Zeus speeds up startup time for Rails commands (development, server, testing)
guard-jasmine	Frontend testing using PhantomJS/Webkit
guard-cucumber	Reruns changed/affected Cucumber Features
guard-jekyll-plus	Extensive plugin for working with Jekyll projects
guard-brakeman	Scans your Rails application for known security holes (CVE's)
guard-rubocop	Check your source files to style violations and potential problems
guard-puppet	Helps build Puppet catalogs for deploying and managing sites and servers
guard-shell	Runs shell commands when changes happen - also supports notifications and long -running programs
guard-livereload	Reloads browser whenever web pages change
guard-nanoc	rebuild Nanoc websites
guard-process	Manages background processes (servers, daemons)
guard-yield	runs any Ruby code (without the need to write a Guard plugin)

Rails related

Plugin	When to use
guard-brakeman	Scans your Rails application for known security holes (CVE's)
guard-migrate	Migrates the database whenever you add/change migrations
guard-jammit	Compressing assets (JS, CSS)
guard-annotate	Inserts "cheatsheets" about your database schema into your source files
guard-passenger	Manages the Passenger server (restarts when necessary)
guard-sprockets	Recompiles assets using Sprockets
guard-cogs	guard-sprockets alternative
guard-rails_best_practices	check if code matches Rails Best Practices
guard-bower_rails	Automatically install/update Rails bower dependencies
guard-bundler-audit	check for gems with vulnerabilities
guard-consistency_fail	detect missing unique indexes in Rails projects
guard-flow	runs flow type checker on Rails javascript files

Website generating/authoring

Plugin	When to use
guard-jekyll-plus	Extensive plugin for working with Jekyll projects
guard-middleman	Rebuilds Middleman static websites
guard-nanoc	rebuild Nanoc websites

Web CSS/template processing/compiling

| guard-coffeescript | Compiles CoffeeScript files | guard-compass | Rebuilds your CSS files in Compass Sass projects | guard-tilt |? | guard-sass | Recompiles Sass files to CSS | guard-slim | regenerate slim templates | guard-haml | compile Haml templates to HTML | guard-less | compile LESS templates | guard-stylus | compile Node.js Stylus CSS templates | guard-erb | compiles erb files

General Web Development

Plugin	When to use
guard-livereload	Reloads browser whenever web pages change
guard-embertools	rebuilds application.js when ember files are modified
guard-pusher	Send messages to multiple iPad/iPhone browsers (like "reload page")
guard-shopify	automatically upload and update Shopify templates when they change
guard-premailer	inline CSS in email templates
guard-sprite-factory	Web Development

Restarting servers/daemons/workers

Plugin	When to use
guard-process	Manages background processes (servers, daemons)
guard-redis	restarts Redis server when needed
guard-go	Run and restart go programs and servers when changed
guard-resque	restarts Resque workers
guard-delayed	automatically restarts delayed_job workers
guard-webrick	Restarts WEBrick server when needed
guard-rack	restarts Rack app server
guard-puma	restarts Puma app server
guard-foreman	reruns foreman
guard-goliath	restarts Goliath apps
guard-grunt	restarts Grunt

Web asset optimization

Plugin	When to use
guard-uglify	compress JavaScript files using uglifier gem
guard-steering	Speed up Handlebar.js templates by precompiling them
guard-concat	concat assets (JS/CSS) into single files

Testing

Plugin	When to use
guard-cucumber	Reruns changed/affected Cucumber Features
guard-rspec	Smart/incremental RSpec runner
guard-minitest	runs Minitest and Test/Unit tests
guard-jasmine	Frontend testing using PhantomJS/Webkit
guard-teaspoon	Web testing with PhantomJS or Selenium WebDriver
guard-prove	reruns Perl tests
guard-motion	reruns specs for RubyMotion (iOS, Android, OSX Ruby apps)
guard-phpunit	Guard::PHPUnit automatically runs your tests
guard-frank	rerun Frank-Cucumber (iOS) features
guard-calabash-ios	return Calabash iOS Cucumber features
guard-jasmine-headless-webkit	rerun Jasmine tests in a headless WebKit instance
guard-jasmine-node	reruns Jasmine Node.js tests
guard-jenkins	sets a Jenkins status image depending whether there's a failure or not
guard-bdd	run tests in order: unit tests, integration tests, then acceptance tests
guard-cedar	runs Cedar (Objective-C) BDD tests
guard-codeception	run Codeception tests (PHP)
guard-combustion	testing Rails Engines
guard-cunit	run CUnit tests
guard-elixir	runs Elixir tests using "mix test"
guard-gotest	runs Go tests
guard-gradle	builds and runs Java tests (Gradle projects)
guard-gradle-android-test	runs Java Gradle tests for Android

Code Quality

Plugin	When to use
guard-cane	fails the build if your source files fail the quality level
guard-rubocop	Check your source files to style violations and potential problems
guard-jshint-node	detect errors and potential problems in JavaScript files
guard-coffeelint	run coffeelint
guard-flog	creates flog reports

Documentation

Plugin	When to use
guard-hologram	generates beautiful style guides for CSS
guard-docbook-status	update docbook document overviews (structure stats)
guard-readme-on-github	preview GitHub pages locally before pushing them to GH
guard-rocco	regenerates Rocco docs
guard-gimli	convert markup files (markdown, rdoc) into PDF files
guard-git-scribe	rebuild git-scribe ebooks
guard-markdown	convert Markdown files to HTML
guard-ronn	compile man pages

Deploying / DevOps / System services

Plugin	When to use
guard-s3	Synchronize folders with Amazon S3 buckets
guard-puppet	Helps build Puppet catalogs for deploying and managing sites and servers
guard-chef	watches and reloads Chef recipes automatically
guard-flopbox	synchronize directories via SFTP
guard-autoupload	upload files using SFTP or FTP
guard-bosh	update Cloud Foundry BOSH config (large scale distributed services)
guard-clockwork	restart Clockwork instances (Clockwork = Cron replacement written)
guard-fig	help develop docker containers using fig
guard-foodcritic	lint tool for Opscode Chef cookbooks

Editor helpers (ctags generators)

Plugin	When to use
guard-ctags-bundler	regenerates CTags files so editors can find method definitions
guard-ctags-composer	for PHP projects

Utility

Plugin	When to use
guard-bundler	installs/updates gems when Gemfile changes
guard-shell	Runs shell commands when changes happen - also supports notifications and long -running programs
guard-yield	runs any Ruby code (without the need to write a Guard plugin)
guard-rake	reruns a rake task when files change
guard-rsync	automatically sync directories with RSync whenever they change
guard-post	automatically load text files into database records (Mongoid, ActiveRecord, etc.)
guard-lilypond	Engraving music scores
guard-zen	Runs Ruby Koans
guard-blogger	update Blogger templates
guard-cocoapods	installs CocoaPods
guard-bundler	installs/updates gems when Gemfile changes
guard-copy	copy files whenever files are created or modified
guard-copy3	copies files and folders whenever files are created or modified
guard-entangle	expands files inline
guard-gitpusher	automatically uploads changed files to Git repository

Guard Plugin development

Plugin	When to use
guard-compat	Essential for developing and testing Guard Plugins
guard-yield	runs any Ruby code (without the need to write a Guard plugin)

Not yet categorized/described

NOTE: I (@e2) haven't gone through these - please move these into the above categories if any are usable/useful enough:

Plugin	When to use
guard-addremove	?
[guard-asciidoctor]:	?
[guard-bacon]:	?
guard-blink1	?
[guard-bower]:	?
guard-catalog	?
[guard-cloudformation]:	?
guard-concatfilter	?
guard-cop:	?
guard-copy2	?
[guard-cucumber-js]:	?
guard-depend	?
guard-ecukes	?
[guard-ejs]:	?
guard-erlang	?
guard-evergreen	?
guard-faye	?
[guard-fixture_builder]:	?
[guard-flay]:	?
[guard-go]:	?
guard-gulp	?
guard-haml-coffee	?
[guard-haml-ext]:	?
[guard-haml2erb]:	?
guard-handlebars	?
guard-haskell	?
guard-helpers	?
guard-herbalizer	?
guard-hogan	?
guard-i18n-js	?
[guard-i18next]:	?
guard-image_optim	?
guard-imageoptim	?
guard-inch	?
guard-jade	?
[guard-jasmine-rails]:	?
guard-jaspec	?
guard-java	?
guard-jenkins	?
guard-jessie	?
guard-jet	?
[guard-jetty]:	?
guard-jruby-minitest	?
guard-jruby-rspec	?
[guard-js-static-require]:	?
guard-jshint-on-rails	?
[guard-jshintrb]:	?
guard-jslint	?
[guard-jslint-on-rails]:	?
[guard-jslint-on-rails-for-1.1.1]:	?
[guard-jst]:	?
guard-jstd	?
guard-julia	?
guard-karma	?
guard-kitchen	?
guard-kjell	?
guard-knife	?
[guard-koans]:	?
guard-konacha	?
guard-konacha-rails	?
guard-konacha-version	?
guard-lessc	?
guard-librarian	?
guard-live-set	?
guard-llsprockets	?
[guard-lono]:	?
guard-markdown	?
guard-markdown2impress	?
guard-maven	?
guard-minitest-decisiv	?
guard-mirror	?
guard-mocha-node	?
guard-mouch	?
guard-mthaml	?
guard-mustachejs	?
guard-mutant	?
guard-notifier-blink1	?
[guard-notifier-git_auto_commit]:	?
guard-notifier-gntp_only-darwin	?
guard-npm	?
guard-ocunit	?
[guard-opal-rails]:	?
guard-openscad	?
guard-parallel_all	?
guard-pdflatex	?
guard-phantomjs-jasmine	?
guard-phpcs	?
guard-phpmd	?
guard-phpspec	?
[guard-phpunit2]:	?
guard-play	?
guard-pow	?
guard-predictionio	?
[guard-preek]:	?
[guard-preserves]:	?
guard-processing	?
[guard-prostores]:	?
guard-puppet-lint	?
guard-pushover	?
guard-pytest	?
[guard-python-unittest]:	?
guard-rackunit	?
[guard-rackup]:	?
guard-ragel	?
guard-rails	?
guard-rails_best_practices	?
guard-railsbp	?
guard-railstestdb	?
guard-rake-vagrant	?
guard-rdoc	?
guard-rebar	?
guard-redcarpet	?
guard-reek	?
guard-reloader	?
guard-remote-sync	?
guard-resque-scheduler	?
guard-restarter	?
[guard-rna]:	?
guard-roxy	?
guard-rrails	?
guard-rspec-jruby	?
guard-rubby	?
[guard-ruby]:	?
guard-rubybeautify	?
guard-rubycritic	?
[guard-rust]:	?
guard-schema	?
guard-schema	?
guard-sculpin	?
guard-seeds	?
[guard-shellexec]:	?
guard-shopify	?
guard-shopifytheme	?
guard-shoryuken	?
guard-shotgun	?
guard-sidekiq	?
[guard-simple_shell]:	?
guard-spin	?
guard-spinach	?
guard-spinoff	?
guard-spork	?
guard-sporkminitest	?
guard-spring	?
guard-sprite-factory	?
guard-sprockets2	?
guard-staticmatic	?
guard-steering	?
[guard-stitch]:	?
guard-stitch-plus	?
guard-strainer	?
guard-sublime-ctags	?
guard-sunspot	?
[guard-sync]:	?
guard-tap	?
guard-tay	?
guard-teabag	?
[guard-templates]:	?
guard-templates-jshaml	?
guard-test	?
guard-tishadow	?
guard-titan	?
guard-toc	?
guard-treetop	?
guard-typescript	?
guard-unicorn	?
guard-unity	?
guard-vows	?
guard-webhook-notifier	?
guard-webpack	?
guard-xcode	?
guard-xcoder	?
guard-xctool-test	?
guard-yaml	?
guard-yamlsort	?
guard-yard	?
[guard-yardstick]:	?
guard-yeti	?
guard-zeus-client	?
[guard-zeus_server]:	?

Outdated/Obsolete plugins

Outdated Plugin	Why outdated/obsolete
Rails-Autotester	probably replaced with Guard::Minitest
guard-autorefresh	superseeded by Guard::LiveReload
guard-coffeedripper	probably outdated
guard-db	probably replaced with guard-migrate
guard-ego	Guard can now reload itself
guard-focus	probably can be replaces with Guard::RSpec with custom config
guard-hydra	probably replaced with Guard::RSpec using parallel specs (check Guard::RSpec Readme)
guard-jekyll	superseeded by guard-jekyll-plus
guard-jessie	likely superseeded by guard-jasmine
guard-jslint-on-rails	probably outdated
guard-jstd	probably superseeded by other JavaScript testing Guard plugins
guard-krl	updates cloud-based Kinetic Rules Engine rule files (company dissolved)
guard-mozrepl	probably superseeded by Guard::LiveReload
guard-phantomjs	probably superseeded by other JavaScript testing Guard plugins
guard-rails-assets	not sure if it works with Rails 4
guard-rspectacle	Embedded RSpec runner - probably better to use Guard::Rspec or Guard::Zeus
guard-soca	likely outdated
guard-spring	guard-rspec supports running RSpec with Spring and a lot more
guard-sprockets2	probably outdated
guard-stendhal	likely outdated
guard-stitch	alternative to guard-sprockets, but may be outdated
[guard-jekyll2]	probably replaced with guard-jekyll-plus
guard-fast_spec	probably obsolete