Input Types

Input types define how nodes reference their source data. They are used in <sourceFiles>, <stylesheet>, <stylesheetParams>, and other node configuration elements.

<files>

References files on disk using glob patterns or direct paths.

<files>source/inscriptions/*.xml</files>
<files>source/stylesheets/lib/epidoc-to-html.xsl</files>

Glob patterns follow standard syntax (*, **, {} alternation). Paths are relative to the project root.

WARNING

<files> rejects directories. Use <dir> instead if you need to pass a directory path.

<from>

References the output of another pipeline node, creating an explicit dependency.

<from node="extract-metadata" output="transformed"/>
<from node="extract-metadata" output="transformed" glob="*.xml"/>

Attribute	Required	Description
node	Yes	Name of the source node
output	Yes	Output key to reference
glob	No	Filter the referenced outputs by glob pattern

<collect>

Creates an implicit dependency on all nodes that write files into the specified directory.

<collect>_assembly</collect>

This is typically used by <eleventyBuild> to depend on everything that contributes to the assembled site.

<dir>

References a directory path. The path is resolved to an absolute path and validated to exist as a directory.

<dir>source/authority</dir>

Use <dir> when a stylesheet parameter expects a directory path rather than individual files. Files within the directory are tracked for cache invalidation.

TypeScript API

When defining pipelines in TypeScript, the equivalent helpers are:

import { files, from, collect, dir } from '@efes-ng/core'

files('source/inscriptions/*.xml')
from('extract-metadata', 'transformed')
collect('_assembly')
dir('source/authority')