NPM script runner.

dev.js

var path = require("path");
var spawn = require("child_process").spawn;

var scripts = process.argv.slice(2);

console.log("Running from %s", process.cwd());

scripts.forEach(function(script) {
  console.log("[executing] npm run %s", script);

  var proc = spawn("npm", ["run", script]);

  proc.stdout.on("data", function(data) {
    process.stdout.write("[" + script + "] " + data);
  });

  proc.stderr.on("data", function(data) {
    process.stderr.write("[" + script + "] " + data);
  });
});

package.json

{
  "name": "some-project",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "description": "its just this project, you know?",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "watchify": "watchify src/js/index.js -d -o app/js/app.js",
    "less-dev": "cd src/less && nodemon -x lessc ./index.less ../../app/css/index.css",
    "dev-server": "nodemon server.js",
    "dev": "node scripts/dev.js watchify less-dev dev-server"
  },
  "author": "Morgan \"ARR!\" Allen",
  "license": "Beerware"
}

Demonstrates the direction I've been going with using NPM as an alternative to Grunt, gulp, derp, what ever. When ditching Grunt one of the main problems I encountered was not easily being able to run multiple script, maintaining output from a single command. Telling colleagues to run 3 commands in 3 terminals is a bit unacceptable for me.

Read the very timely (for me at least) article from @substack for starting context.
http://substack.net/task_automation_with_npm_run

But two things didn't sit well for me. Firstly using command & command background all but the last command, rendering them unkillable by a normal CTRL-C. Deal breaker. Secondly, these are too Bash-centric (or *nix even) in my opinion and
using purely a Node script should maintain reasonable compatibility with Window.