Windows install/dev fails because @openuidev/cli build:templates uses Unix shell commands

[vishxrad]

Description

Running pnpm i on Windows fails during the @openuidev/cli prepare step.

The failure happens in packages/openui-cli/package.json:

"build:templates": "rm -rf dist/templates/openui-chat && mkdir -p dist/templates && cp -R src/templates/openui-chat dist/templates/openui-chat"

This script uses Unix shell commands (rm -rf, mkdir -p, cp -R) which are not available in Windows PowerShell/CMD.

Reproduction

Environment:

• OS: Windows
• Shell: PowerShell / CMD
• Package manager: pnpm

Steps:

git clone https://github.com/thesysdev/openui
cd openui
pnpm i

Actual result

Install fails with:

packages/openui-cli prepare$ pnpm run build
$ pnpm run build:cli && pnpm run build:templates
$ tsc -p .
$ rm -rf dist/templates/openui-chat && mkdir -p dist/templates && cp -R src/templates/openui-chat dist/templates/openui-chat
'rm' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
[ELIFECYCLE] Command failed with exit code 1.

There are also earlier warnings like:

Failed to create bin at ...\node_modules\.bin\openui.
ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '...\packages\openui-cli\dist\index.js.EXE'

which seem related to the CLI build not completing successfully.

Expected result

pnpm i should complete successfully on Windows.

Also, the docs dev server should be runnable with:

pnpm --filter @openuidev/docs dev

but this currently depends on @openuidev/cli building successfully.

Suggested fix

Make build:templates cross-platform.

Possible options:

1. Use a Node script to copy the templates.
2. Use cross-platform packages like rimraf and shx.
3. Avoid Unix-specific shell commands in package scripts.

For example:

"build:templates": "rimraf dist/templates/openui-chat && shx mkdir -p dist/templates && shx cp -R src/templates/openui-chat dist/templates/openui-chat"

or better, replace it with a small Node script using fs.cpSync.

The cleanest fix is probably a small Node script, because then the repo does not depend on shell behavior at all.

[shogun444]

Hi @vishxrad ,

I'd like to work on this.

My plan is to replace the Unix-specific shell commands in build:templates with a cross-platform Node-based implementation using the filesystem APIs (fs.rmSync, fs.mkdirSync, and fs.cpSync).

This should remove the Windows-specific install failure without introducing additional dependencies such as rimraf or shx.

I'll verify the fix on Windows and ensure the existing build flow remains unchanged on other platforms.

[vishxrad]

@shogun444 I have assigned you this issue.

[shogun444]

@vishxrad While testing this on Windows, I noticed a couple of other places that still use Unix commands. @openuidev/react-ui uses rm -rf dist, and @openuidev/browser-bundle uses rm -rf dist && mkdir -p dist.

I left those out of this PR since #597 is specifically about @openuidev/cli, but happy to open a follow-up issue if that's helpful.