Platform-aware script runner for Node.js projects

Name: Platform-aware script runner for Node.js projects
Availability: InStock
Author: carlos-menezes

by carlos-menezes·Mar 17, 2026·3 points·0 comments

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AI Analysis

●MidShip It

Platform-aware npm scripts when cross-env and shell conditionals already solve this.

Strengths

•Naming convention like build:darwin:arm64 is cleaner than shell if-statements
•Fallback chain through platform, arch, and default handles missing variants gracefully
•Dry-run and verbose flags help debug which script variant gets resolved

Weaknesses

•Cross-platform script execution already solved by cross-env and platform-specific packages
•Small utility that most monorepo tooling already handles in different ways

Post Description

Hey HN.

I made this to scratch my own itch when trying to run scripts for different operating systems (Windows and Mac) and architectures (Intel Mac and M3 Max Mac).

If you maintain a monorepo or work across Mac (Intel + Apple Silicon) and Linux/Windows, you've probably copy-pasted platform-specific commands into your CI or kept a wall of if statements in shell scripts.

`target-run` lets you define platform/arch variants of any `npm` script using a naming convention:

{ "scripts": { "build": "target-run", "build:darwin:arm64": "node dist/index-darwin-arm64.js", "build:linux:x64": "node dist/index-linux-x64.js", "build:default": "node dist/index.js" } }

Running `pnpm build` dispatches to the right variant automatically, falling back through `platform:arch`, `platform`, `arch` and, finally, `default`.

The README has more details on usage and options. Thanks for checking it out.