### Discussed in https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/discussions/4822

<div type='discussions-op-text'>

<sup>Originally posted by **itepifanio** March 14, 2023</sup>
Quarto provides [pre and post rendering](https://quarto.org/docs/projects/scripts.html#pre-and-post-render) features but it doesn't extend when live previewing the documents.

I have a script that reads `yaml` content and outputs `.qmd` files used in a Quarto website. I was trying to add a custom watcher for the `yaml` files, this way, when a `yaml` file changes the `.qmd` files the Quarto live previewing would refresh. 

My solution was running Quarto as a subprocess and creating the custom watcher. A pre rendering that works with live previewing would make my life easier because I would be able to run the `yaml` watcher script without working with subprocessing.</div>
2023-03-15T11:32:29Z
cderv
enhancement project-scripts
Future
open
Pre render for quarto preview
https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/4841