Articles

• Why we should stop using Grunt & Gulp - Blog post by Keith Cirkel.
• How to Use npm as a Build Tool - Sequel to »Why we should stop using Grunt & Gulp«.
• Running cross-platform tasks via npm package scripts - The most comprehensive guide to using npm Scripts by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer.

Cross-platform Utilities

Utility Packs

• shx - Collection of common Unix utilities implemented in Node.js; example usage: shx rm somefile.

• rimraf - Delete files or directories; like rm -rf.
• cross-env - Set environment variables for scripts, unix-style.
• del-cli - Safer file and folder deletion.
• mkdirp - Create a directory, creating parent directories if needed; like mkdir -p.
• cpr - cp -r for Node.js.
• cpy-cli - File/directory copying/renaming.
• copyfiles - Copy a list of files into a directory.
• sync-files - rsync-like directory syncing with watch mode.
• echo-cli - Cross-platform echo with JS escape sequence support.
• clear-cli - Clear the terminal.
• cross-os - Run platform-specific npm scripts.
• ntee - Utility that reads from standard input and writes to standard output and files; like Unix tee.

Dev Servers

• http-server - Simple zero-configuration command-line http server.
• live-server - Simple development http server with live reload capability.

File Watchers

• onchange - onchange <glob> -- <command>.
• watch - watch <command> <directory>.

Miscellaneous

Utility Packs

• screwy - The npm scripts GUI.
• run-npm - Run locally-installed node module executables. Useful for debugging npm scripts.
• npm-quick-run - Quickly run npm scripts by prefix without typing the full name.
• edit-script - Edit npm scripts from the command line without worrying about JSON escaping.
• ntl - Interactive cli menu to list and run npm scripts.

Other Utilities

Utility Packs

• hashmark - Take contents of a file and output as new file with a hash in the name.
• gzip-size-cli - Get the gzipped size of a file or stdin.
• opn-cli - Open websites, files, executables, etc. with the user's preferred application.
• headr - Add header / banner info to a file.
• Bower files CLI - Get main bower files on the command line.
• cli-error-notifier - Send native desktop notifications when npm scripts fail.

Task Runners

• script-runner - Simple task runner with a terse syntax.
• redrun - Expand scripts from package.json to improve execution speed.
• npm-run-all2 - Fully featured task runner.

Videos/Talks

• Advanced front-end automation with npm scripts - Talk at Nordic.js 2015 by Kate Hudson.