sbt

Start an interactive sbt shell in the current project

$ sbt

$ sbt compile

$ sbt run

$ sbt test

$ sbt "testOnly [com.example.MySpec]"

$ sbt ~compile

$ sbt clean compile

$ sbt package

sbt [options] [command...]

sbt (Scala Build Tool) is the standard build tool for Scala projects. It handles compilation, testing, dependency management, packaging, and publishing. sbt uses a build definition written in Scala itself, typically in build.sbt.
sbt operates in two modes: batch mode where commands are passed as arguments and sbt exits after execution, and interactive mode where sbt starts a shell for continuous interaction. The interactive shell provides faster feedback since the JVM stays running between commands.
Key features include incremental compilation (only recompiling changed files), continuous execution using the ~ prefix (e.g., ~test runs tests on every file save), and cross-building for multiple Scala versions using + prefix.

-h, --help

Display help information

Enable verbose logging

Enable debug logging

Disable ANSI color codes in output

Disable interactive mode

Use specified sbt version

Specify alternate Java installation directory

Pass system property to the JVM

Pass JVM option directly (e.g., -J-Xmx2048M)

Set memory allocation (e.g., -mem 2048)

compile

Compile main sources

Run all tests

Run the main class

Start Scala REPL with project classpath

Delete generated files (target directory)

Reload build definition

Resolve and download dependencies

Create JAR file from compiled classes

Publish artifacts to configured repository

Publish artifacts to local Ivy repository

sbt can be memory-intensive; large projects may require increasing heap size via SBT_OPTS or .jvmopts. The first run downloads dependencies and may be slow. Build definitions have their own learning curve with settings, tasks, and scopes.

sbt was created by Mark Harrah in 2008 and has become the de facto build tool for Scala projects. It was originally called "Simple Build Tool" but the name was later de-emphasized. The project is now maintained by Lightbend (formerly Typesafe) and the Scala community. Version 1.0 was released in 2017, bringing significant improvements to build semantics and performance.

scala(1), scalac(1), gradle(1), maven(1)