Global flags

Flag reference

Flag	Applies to	Default	Description
--browser	dev, build, package	chrome (dev) / all (build, package)	Target browser. Must match a value in config.browsers.
--dev	build	false	Build in development mode: source maps on, HMR client injected.
--sourcemap	build	false	Include source maps. Implied by --dev.
--strict	build	false	Treat cross-browser compat warnings as errors. Exits 1 on any compat issue.
--quiet	dev, build, validate, doctor	false	Suppress info-level log output. Warnings and errors still print.
--verbose	dev	false	Log every file change, the chosen reload strategy, and each message sent to clients.
--json	dev, build, validate, doctor	false	Emit newline-delimited JSON log objects. Human-readable output is suppressed.
--once	dev	false	Run a single dev build then exit. No watcher, no WebSocket server.
--port	dev	35729	HMR WebSocket port. Overrides config.dev.port.
--host	dev	localhost	HMR host. Overrides config.dev.host.

Notes on --json

Each JSON line has at minimum { "level": "...", "message": "..." }. Some lines include "data" with structured context. The format is stable within a major version.

{"level":"info","message":"HMR server started on ws://localhost:35729"}
{"level":"warn","message":"EXT_COMPAT_UNSUPPORTED","data":{"api":"tabGroups.query","file":"src/background/index.ts","line":12}}

Notes on --strict

Without --strict, compat issues from the cross-browser scanner are logged as warnings and the build succeeds. With --strict, the first compat issue causes the build to exit 1.

Equivalent to setting dev.strictCompat: true in config for dev mode, or passing --strict per-command for build.

Notes on flag values

--flag <value> rejects any value that begins with -, because the most common cause of a leading-dash value is a forgotten argument (e.g. extforge dev --port --browser firefox consuming --browser as the port). To pass a literal leading-dash value, use the explicit = form: --port=-1.

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Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success. All builds or checks passed.
1	Error. Build failed, config invalid, or doctor has at least one fail result.
130	SIGINT received (Ctrl-C). The dev server or build was interrupted by the user.
143	SIGTERM received. The process was terminated externally.

doctor exit code detail

extforge doctor exits 0 if no check has status fail. A check with status warn does not set a non-zero exit code. Use --json and jq to filter:

extforge doctor --json | jq '.results[] | select(.status == "fail")'