# Setup with ddev

While not strictly necessary to run the node commands through `ddev`, there are some use cases that justifies it. 

There's a good blog post called [Drupal Radix Sub-theme Browsersync With DDEV](https://kentrichards.net/blog/drupal-radix-sub-theme-browsersync-ddev) by Kent Richards that you can read, but here's the gist:

Steps:

1. First set your `nodejs_version` to `` `lts/jod` `` so it is the same as your version defined in `.nvmrc` in the sub-theme

```bash
ddev nvm install lts/jod
```

Then re-run your `ddev`:

For ease of use, you can define a `ddev command` in `.ddev/commands/web/` and create a `watch` file (no extension needed) with the following:

```bash
#!/bin/bash

## Description: Installs nvm version and runs npm watch
## Usage: theme:watch
## Example: ddev theme:watch THEME_NAME

GREEN='\033[0;32m'
RED='\033[0;31m'
NC='\033[0m\n' # set no color and line end

printf "${GREEN}Launching npm install inside ddev${NC}"

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Please provide a theme name. Usage: ddev theme:watch THEME_NAME"
    exit 1
fi

cd web/themes/custom/$1
nvm alias default `cat .nvmrc`
npm run watch
```

Once that's done, you can run the **watch** command with: `ddev theme:watch THEME_NAME` . You may also create additional commands if you need them accordingly.

Special thanks to Nathan Kendall, Kent Richards, and others in [this issue](https://www.drupal.org/project/radix/issues/3476010)