Automated Format Conversion: Scripts, Hooks, and Watch-Mode Workflows
Automate data format conversions with shell scripts, git hooks, and file-watch daemons. Run conversions on commit, on save, or on a schedule.
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Tags: automation, scripts, data-formats
Automated Format Conversion: Scripts, Hooks, and Watch-Mode Workflows Manual format conversion is a tax on your time. Every time you edit and forget to update , you find out the hard way when the YAML-consuming tool breaks. Automating these conversions — through file watchers, Git hooks, and Makefile targets — eliminates the category of bug entirely. This guide covers local automation for format conversion: file watchers with chokidar and watchman, pre-commit hooks that keep configs in sync, Makefile targets for deterministic builds, and npm scripts for JavaScript projects. Pre-Commit Hooks for Config Sync Pre-commit hooks run before each commit. They're the right place to enforce that derived config files are in sync — if they're not, the commit fails with a helpful message. Using Husky…
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