Automatically reload your node.js app on file change with Gulp (https://github.com/wearefractal/gulp).

Gulpfile.js

// NOTE: I previously suggested doing this through Grunt, but had plenty of problems with
// my set up. Grunt did some weird things with scope, and I ended up using nodemon. This
// setup is now using Gulp. It works exactly how I expect it to and is WAY more concise.
var gulp = require('gulp'),
    spawn = require('child_process').spawn,
    node;

/**
 * $ gulp server
 * description: launch the server. If there's a server already running, kill it.
 */
gulp.task('server', function() {
  if (node) node.kill()
  node = spawn('node', ['index.js'], {stdio: 'inherit'})
  node.on('close', function (code) {
    if (code === 8) {
      gulp.log('Error detected, waiting for changes...');
    }
  });
})

/**
 * $ gulp
 * description: start the development environment
 */
gulp.task('default', function() {
  gulp.run('server')

  gulp.watch(['./index.js', './lib/**/*.js'], function() {
    gulp.run('server')
  })
  
  // Need to watch for sass changes too? Just add another watch call!
  // no more messing around with grunt-concurrent or the like. Gulp is
  // async by default.
})

// clean up if an error goes unhandled.
process.on('exit', function() {
    if (node) node.kill()
})

Never mind, I got it to work.
Make sure the task signal [Async Completion](https://github.com/gulpjs/gulp/blob/9f4a2e96506dec1d85804de8884678e72ffc5aa0/docs/getting-started/4-async-completion.md). Or, just define your task as an [`async` function](https://github.com/gulpjs/gulp/blob/9f4a2e96506dec1d85804de8884678e72ffc5aa0/docs/getting-started/4-async-completion.md#using-asyncawait):

```javascript
async function startServer() {
  if (node) node.kill();
  node = await spawn("node", ["./src/server.js"], { stdio: "inherit" });

  node.on("close", function (code) {
    if(code === 8) {
      console.log("Error detected, waiting for changes...");
    }
  });
}

gulp.task("default", function () {

  // Start the server, if a change is detected restart it
  gulp.watch(
    ["src/**/*", "src/server.js"],
    {
      queue: false,
      ignoreInitial: false // Execute task on startup 
    },
    startServer);
});
```

👍

Hey man thanks for sharing your gulpfile, you got me out of one hell of a pickle haha!
Here's how mine endend up looking, works great now :D

const gulp = require('gulp');
const watch = gulp.watch;
const series = gulp.series;
const { exec, spawn } = require('child_process');
var serverProc = undefined;

const watcher = watch(['./frontend/**/*', './backend/**/*', '!./backend/**/*.json']);

watcher.on('change', function (path, stats) {
    console.log(`File ${path} was changed - Relaunching...`);
    serverProc.kill('SIGINT');
    exports.default();
});

watcher.on('error', function (e) {
    console.error(e.stack);
});

function purge() {
    return exec('shx rm -rf ./public/*');
}

function bundle() {
    return exec('parcel build ./frontend/html/*.html --out-dir public --no-source-maps');
}

function serve() {
    if (serverProc) serverProc.kill('SIGINT');
    serverProc = spawn('node', ['backend/server.js'], { stdio: 'inherit' });
    serverProc.on('close', function (code) {
        if (code === 8) {
            gulp.log('Error detected, waiting for changes...');
        }
    });
}

exports.default = series(purge, bundle, serve);