CLI Usage¶

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Master the Vexy SVGO command-line interface

Table of contents¶

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TOC

Basic Usage¶

Vexy SVGO provides a powerful command-line interface that's fully compatible with SVGO while adding performance and convenience features.

Single File Optimization¶

# Basic optimization
vexy-svgo input.svg -o output.svg

# Using pipes (STDIN/STDOUT)
cat input.svg | vexy-svgo > output.svg

# Process string directly
vexy-svgo -s '<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><circle r="50"/></svg>'

Multiple Files¶

# Multiple specific files
vexy-svgo icon1.svg icon2.svg icon3.svg

# All SVG files in current directory
vexy-svgo *.svg

# Process directory
vexy-svgo -f assets/icons/

# Recursive directory processing
vexy-svgo -f assets/ -r

Command Options¶

Input/Output Options¶

Option	Description	Example
`-i, --input`	Input file/directory/STDIN	`vexy-svgo -i input.svg`
`-o, --output`	Output file/directory/STDOUT	`vexy-svgo -o output.svg`
`-s, --string`	Process SVG string directly	`vexy-svgo -s '<svg>...</svg>'`
`-f, --folder`	Process entire folder	`vexy-svgo -f ./icons/`
`-r, --recursive`	Process folders recursively	`vexy-svgo -f ./assets/ -r`

Formatting Options¶

Option	Description	Default
`--pretty`	Pretty print output	`false`
`--indent`	Indentation spaces	`2`
`--eol`	Line ending (lf/crlf)	Platform default
`--final-newline`	Ensure trailing newline	`false`
`-p, --precision`	Numeric precision	`3`

Plugin Options¶

Option	Description	Example
`--config`	Custom config file	`--config .svgo.config.js`
`--disable`	Disable plugin	`--disable removeViewBox`
`--enable`	Enable plugin	`--enable cleanupIds`
`--show-plugins`	List available plugins	`vexy-svgo --show-plugins`

Output Options¶

Option	Description	Example
`--datauri`	Output as Data URI	`--datauri base64`
`--multipass`	Multiple optimization passes	`--multipass`
`-q, --quiet`	Suppress output	`-q`
`--no-color`	Disable colored output	`--no-color`

Common Workflows¶

Web Development¶

# Standard web optimization
vexy-svgo input.svg -o output.svg --pretty

# Aggressive compression for production
vexy-svgo input.svg -o output.svg --multipass -p 2

# Process all icons in a build
vexy-svgo -f src/assets/icons/ -o dist/assets/icons/ -r

Build Pipeline Integration¶

# Process new/modified SVGs only
find . -name "*.svg" -newer .last-build | xargs vexy-svgo

# Git pre-commit hook
git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=A | grep '\.svg$' | xargs vexy-svgo

# npm script integration
npm run icons:optimize && vexy-svgo -f dist/icons/

Batch Processing¶

# Process with progress (large batches)
vexy-svgo -f ./thousands-of-icons/ -r --verbose

# Custom output structure
vexy-svgo -f src/icons/ -o dist/icons/ -r --pretty

# Exclude certain files
vexy-svgo -f assets/ -r --exclude "temp|backup" --exclude ".*\.min\.svg"

Advanced Usage¶

Custom Precision¶

Control numeric precision for different use cases:

# High precision for print (slower, larger)
vexy-svgo input.svg -p 5

# Low precision for web (faster, smaller)  
vexy-svgo input.svg -p 1

# Balanced for most use cases
vexy-svgo input.svg -p 3

Plugin Configuration¶

# Disable specific optimizations
vexy-svgo input.svg --disable removeViewBox --disable removeDimensions

# Enable additional plugins
vexy-svgo input.svg --enable cleanupIds --enable sortAttrs

# Show all available plugins
vexy-svgo --show-plugins

Output Formats¶

# Generate Data URI for CSS
vexy-svgo input.svg --datauri base64 > icon.css

# Pretty formatted for development
vexy-svgo input.svg --pretty --indent 4

# Minified for production
vexy-svgo input.svg

Configuration Files¶

.svgo.config.js (SVGO Compatible)¶

module.exports = {
  multipass: true,
  plugins: [
    'removeComments',
    'removeEmptyAttrs',
    {
      name: 'convertColors',
      params: {
        currentColor: true
      }
    }
  ]
};

.svgo.config.json (Native Format)¶

{
  "multipass": true,
  "plugins": [
    "removeComments",
    "removeEmptyAttrs",
    {
      "name": "convertColors", 
      "params": {
        "currentColor": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

Using Config Files¶

# Use specific config file
vexy-svgo --config custom.config.js input.svg

# Automatic discovery (.svgo.config.js/json in current or parent dirs)
vexy-svgo input.svg

# Override config options
vexy-svgo --config base.config.js --disable removeComments input.svg

Performance Tips¶

Maximize Speed¶

# Use native binary (not wrapper)
vexy-svgo input.svg

# Batch processing instead of individual files
vexy-svgo *.svg  # ✅ Fast
# vs
for f in *.svg; do vexy-svgo "$f"; done  # ❌ Slow

# Enable parallel processing for large files (if feature enabled)
vexy-svgo --parallel large-complex.svg

# Disable unnecessary plugins for simple files
vexy-svgo --disable removeMetadata --disable removeTitle simple.svg

Memory Optimization¶

# For very large files, use streaming
vexy-svgo --stream large-file.svg

# Process large batches in chunks
find . -name "*.svg" | xargs -n 50 vexy-svgo

# Configure parallel processing for optimal performance
vexy-svgo --parallel --parallel-threads 4 massive-file.svg

Parallel Processing¶

When working with large SVG files (>1MB or >1000 elements), Vexy SVGO can automatically enable parallel processing:

# Automatic parallel activation for large files
vexy-svgo huge-map.svg  # Automatically uses parallel if file is large

# Force parallel processing
vexy-svgo --parallel icon-set.svg

# Configure parallel thresholds
vexy-svgo --parallel-size-threshold 512000 --parallel-element-threshold 500 file.svg

Integration Examples¶

Makefile¶

optimize-svg:
    vexy-svgo -f src/assets/icons/ -o dist/assets/icons/ -r

watch-svg:
    watchman-make -p '**/*.svg' -t optimize-svg

.PHONY: optimize-svg watch-svg

npm Scripts¶

{
  "scripts": {
    "icons:optimize": "vexy-svgo -f src/icons/ -o dist/icons/ -r",
    "icons:watch": "chokidar 'src/**/*.svg' -c 'npm run icons:optimize'",
    "build": "npm run icons:optimize && webpack"
  }
}

GitHub Actions¶

- name: Optimize SVGs
  run: |
    curl -sSL https://github.com/vexyart/vexy-svgo/releases/latest/download/vexy-svgo-linux.tar.gz | tar -xz
    ./vexy-svgo -f assets/ -r

Migration from SVGO¶

Vexy SVGO is designed as a drop-in replacement:

# Replace this:
npx svgo input.svg -o output.svg

# With this:
vexy-svgo input.svg -o output.svg

Key Differences¶

Feature	SVGO	Vexy SVGO
Speed	Baseline	12x faster
Config	.svgo.config.js	.svgo.config.js/.json
Precision	--precision	-p, --precision
Folder	--folder	-f, --folder
String input	Not supported	-s, --string

Breaking Changes¶

Some plugin parameters may have different names
Custom plugins need to be rewritten in Rust
Output formatting may have minor differences

Troubleshooting¶

Common Issues¶

"Command not found"

# Check if vexy-svgo is in PATH
which vexy-svgo
echo $PATH

# Install or move binary to PATH location

"Permission denied"

# Make binary executable
chmod +x vexy-svgo

"Invalid SVG"

# Validate input SVG
xmllint --noout input.svg

# Check encoding
file input.svg

Debug Mode¶

# Verbose output for debugging
vexy-svgo --verbose input.svg

# Time operations
time vexy-svgo input.svg

Next Steps¶

Configuration - Learn about configuration options
Plugins - Understand available optimizations
Interactive Demo - Try optimizations in your browser

Need help? Check our GitHub Discussions for community support.