The Ionic Framework command line utility makes it easy to start, build, run, and emulate Ionic apps. In the future, it will also have support for our mobile development services and tools that make Ionic even more powerful.

Use the ionic --help command for more detailed task information.

$ sudo npm install -g ionic

$ ionic start myApp [template]

There are three choices of templates:

• Side-Menu (sidemenu)
• Tabs (tabs)
• Blank (blank)

Command-line flags/options:

--app-name, -a  ........................  Human readable name for the app (Use quotes around the name)
--id, -i  ..............................  Package name set in the <widget id> config, ie: com.mycompany.myapp
--no-cordova, -w  ......................  Do not create an app targeted for Cordova

$ ionic serve

$ ionic platform ios android

$ ionic build ios

$ ionic emulate ios

$ ionic run ios

Update Ionic library files, which are found in the www/lib/ionic directory.

$ ionic lib update

Using Ionic's service, you can compile and package your project into an app-store ready app without requiring native SDKs on your machine.

$ ionic package debug android

The third argument can be either debug or release, and the last argument can be either android or ios.

Ionic uses Cordova underneath, so you can also substitute Cordova commands to prepare/build/emulate/run, or to add additional plugins.

Note: we occasionally send anonymous usage statistics to the Ionic team to make the tool better.