justx: Directives¶

justx supports a small set of in-file directives written as comments at the top of a justfile. Directives configure how justx handles that file's recipes without changing the behaviour of just itself.

Syntax¶

# justx: <key> = <value>

Directives are file-level — they apply to all recipes in the file.

working-directory¶

Controls which directory is used as the working directory when running a recipe.

By default, just runs commands relative to the justfile's location. This makes sense when justfiles live alongside the project they operate on. However, justx inverts this default: since justx can run recipes from .just files stored in a central location (e.g. ~/.justx/), it is more intuitive for commands to run relative to the user's current working directory. This way, global recipes behave as if you typed the command yourself. The working-directory directive lets you override this default on a per-file basis.

# justx: working-directory = cwd|justfile

Example — templates.just¶

A justfile that ships helper scripts or templates alongside itself needs justfile mode so it can reference those bundled files:

# justx: working-directory = justfile

# Scaffold a new Python project from the bundled template
scaffold name:
    cp -r ./templates/python {{name}}
    echo "Created project {{name}}"

With working-directory = justfile, paths like ./templates/python resolve relative to the directory containing templates.just (e.g. ~/.justx/), not the user's current directory.