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The plugin reads the source and include patterns of every configuration and registers the files they match with the host bundler. A configuration given as a path is watched too. What a change then triggers is the host’s to decide, so it depends on the target. A one-shot build, such as tsdown with no --watch, compiles once in buildStart and does not rebuild. That is expected.

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Patterns

Patterns and literal paths behave the same wherever rebuilds happen. A source of tokens/**/*.json matches a file directly in tokens/ as well as one in a subdirectory. The directory a pattern starts from is registered too, so a token file created after the watcher started is picked up.

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Watching more files

watch adds files or patterns on top of what the configurations name:
A relative entry here resolves against the plugin’s root, as config does, not against the working directory source uses. See Paths.
A configuration module is imported again when a file named in watch changes, so data it reads as it loads is picked up. A module the configuration itself imports is evaluated once per process: naming it in watch buys a rebuild, not a re-read.

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Token packages in a workspace

A token package resolved through node_modules, such as app/node_modules/@acme/tokens linked to packages/tokens, is watched as well.
  • Vite’s dev server ignores node_modules by default. The plugin un-ignores exactly the token files it registers, so the rest of the dependency tree stays out of the watcher. A negation you added yourself keeps working, since the plugin appends to your list.
  • vite build --watch gets the same negations on Vite 6 and 7. Vite 8 builds on Rolldown, which needs none.
  • Windows cannot be made to deliver those events through Vite’s watcher, so the plugin watches those directories itself, on every platform.
  • Rolldown on macOS drops events for a path registered through a symbolic link. The plugin registers each such path by its realpath as well, and maps the event back to the spelling your patterns use.

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No rebuild loops

Your code imports the generated file, so every regenerate is itself a change the host reacts to. The plugin keeps that from looping three ways:
  1. It subtracts its own output from what it treats as a token source, even when the buildPath sits inside a source directory.
  2. It skips compiling again when a watch rebuild re-enters buildStart.
  3. It skips the write entirely when a rebuild renders the bytes already on disk, so nothing fires a file event.

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Bursts and overlap

A burst of changes, such as an editor’s save-all or a checkout, is collapsed into one rebuild. A change arriving while a rebuild runs queues one follow-up rather than starting a second build beside it.

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Platforms

Linux, macOS and Windows all run the suite in CI.