NPM 'prestart' script equivalent in Flutter

Question

In a package.json file (which is basically the Node version of Flutters pubspec.yaml) You have a scripts section where you can add your own custom scripts. Normally with a node project you'll have a start script that will kick off the build and, well, start the project. In flutter you have flutter run.

In my flutter project I'm using the json_serializable package that generates the code that I use when serialising my objects to JSON. Right now I have to have two terminal windows open:

Tab 1

Runs flutter packages pub run build_runner watch that does the code generation and watches the file system.

Tab 2

Run flutter run that runs the project with hot reloading.

So it would be great if you had something like Nodes prestart in pubspec.yaml where I can run the code generation automatically when I run flutter run

Answer 1

There currently is no such thing in Dart. You can create your own Dart or shell scripts in tool/ that runs your builder_runner command detached (in the background) and the flutter run command in the foreground. you can start this just using tool/run.dart

However with build becoming mature and pub serve/pub build being deprecated I assume the Dart team is thinking already about making this a more pleasant experience.