❯ Prompts

Lightweight, beautiful and user-friendly interactive prompts
_{>_ Easy to use CLI prompts to enquire users for information▌}

• Simple: prompts has no big dependencies nor is it broken into a dozen tiny modules that only work well together.
• User friendly: prompt uses layout and colors to create beautiful cli interfaces.
• Promised: uses promises and async/await. No callback hell.
• Flexible: all prompts are independent and can be used on their own.
• Testable: provides a way to submit answers programmatically.
• Unified: consistent experience across all prompts.

$ npm install --save prompts

This package supports Node 14 and above

const prompts = require('prompts');

(async () => {
  const response = await prompts({
    type: 'number',
    name: 'value',
    message: 'How old are you?',
    validate: value => value < 18 ? `Nightclub is 18+ only` : true
  });

  console.log(response); // => { value: 24 }
})();

See example.js for more options.

Prompt with a single prompt object. Returns an object with the response.

const prompts = require('prompts');

(async () => {
  const response = await prompts({
    type: 'text',
    name: 'meaning',
    message: 'What is the meaning of life?'
  });

  console.log(response.meaning);
})();

Prompt with a list of prompt objects. Returns an object with the responses. Make sure to give each prompt a unique name property to prevent overwriting values.

const prompts = require('prompts');

const questions = [
  {
    type: 'text',
    name: 'username',
    message: 'What is your GitHub username?'
  },
  {
    type: 'number',
    name: 'age',
    message: 'How old are you?'
  },
  {
    type: 'text',
    name: 'about',
    message: 'Tell something about yourself',
    initial: 'Why should I?'
  }
];

(async () => {
  const response = await prompts(questions);

  // => response => { username, age, about }
})();

Prompt properties can be functions too. Prompt Objects with type set to falsy values are skipped.

const prompts = require('prompts');

const questions = [
  {
    type: 'text',
    name: 'dish',
    message: 'Do you like pizza?'
  },
  {
    type: prev => prev == 'pizza' ? 'text' : null,
    name: 'topping',
    message: 'Name a topping'
  }
];

(async () => {
  const response = await prompts(questions);
})();

Type: Function
Returns: Object

Prompter function which takes your prompt objects and returns an object with responses.

Type: Array|Object

Array of prompt objects. These are the questions the user will be prompted. You can see the list of supported prompt types here.

Prompts can be submitted (return, enter) or canceled (esc, abort, ctrl+c, ctrl+d). No property is being defined on the returned response object when a prompt is canceled.

Type: Function
Default: () => {}

Callback that's invoked after each prompt submission. Its signature is (prompt, answer, answers) where prompt is the current prompt object, answer the user answer to the current question and answers the user answers so far. Async functions are supported.

Return true to quit the prompt chain and return all collected responses so far, otherwise continue to iterate prompt objects.

Example:

(async () => {
  const questions = [{ ... }];
  const onSubmit = (prompt, answer) => console.log(`Thanks I got ${answer} from ${prompt.name}`);
  const response = await prompts(questions, { onSubmit });
})();

Type: Function
Default: () => {}

Callback that's invoked when the user cancels/exits the prompt. Its signature is (prompt, answers) where prompt is the current prompt object and answers the user answers so far. Async functions are supported.

Return true to continue and prevent the prompt loop from aborting. On cancel responses collected so far are returned.

Example:

(async () => {
  const questions = [{ ... }];
  const onCancel = prompt => {
    console.log('Never stop prompting!');
    return true;
  }
  const response = await prompts(questions, { onCancel });
})();

Type: Function

Preanswer questions by passing an object with answers to prompts.override. Powerful when combined with arguments of process.

Example

const prompts = require('prompts');
prompts.override(require('yargs').argv);

(async () => {
  const response = await prompts([
    {
      type: 'text',
      name: 'twitter',
      message: `What's your twitter handle?`
    },
    {
      type: 'multiselect',
      name: 'color',
      message: 'Pick colors',
      choices: [
        { title: 'Red', value: '#ff0000' },
        { title: 'Green', value: '#00ff00' },
        { title: 'Blue', value: '#0000ff' }
      ],
    }
  ]);

  console.log(response);
})();

Type: Function

Programmatically inject responses. This enables you to prepare the responses ahead of time. If any injected value is found the prompt is immediately resolved with the injected value. This feature is intended for testing only.

Type: Array

Array with values to inject. Resolved values are removed from the internal inject array. Each value can be an array of values in order to provide answers for a question asked multiple times. If a value is an instance of Error it will simulate the user cancelling/exiting the prompt.

Example:

const prompts = require('prompts');

prompts.inject([ '@terkelg', ['#ff0000', '#0000ff'] ]);

(async () => {
  const response = await prompts([
    {
      type: 'text',
      name: 'twitter',
      message: `What's your twitter handle?`
    },
    {
      type: 'multiselect',
      name: 'color',
      message: 'Pick colors',
      choices: [
        { title: 'Red', value: '#ff0000' },
        { title: 'Green', value: '#00ff00' },
        { title: 'Blue', value: '#0000ff' }
      ],
    }
  ]);

  // => { twitter: 'terkelg', color: [ '#ff0000', '#0000ff' ] }
})();

Prompts Objects are JavaScript objects that define the "questions" and the type of prompt. Almost all prompt objects have the following properties:

{
  type: String | Function,
  name: String | Function,
  message: String | Function,
  initial: String | Function | Async Function
  format: Function | Async Function,
  onRender: Function
  onState: Function
  stdin: Readable
  stdout: Writeable
}

Each property be of type function and will be invoked right before prompting the user.

The function signature is (prev, values, prompt), where prev is the value from the previous prompt, values is the response object with all values collected so far and prompt is the previous prompt object.

Function example:

{
  type: prev => prev > 3 ? 'confirm' : null,
  name: 'confirm',
  message: (prev, values) => `Please confirm that you eat ${values.dish} times ${prev} a day?`
}

The above prompt will be skipped if the value of the previous prompt is less than 3.

Type: String|Function

Defines the type of prompt to display. See the list of prompt types for valid values.

If type is a falsy value the prompter will skip that question.

{
  type: null,
  name: 'forgetme',
  message: `I'll never be shown anyway`,
}

Type: String|Function

The response will be saved under this key/property in the returned response object. In case you have multiple prompts with the same name only the latest response will be stored.

Make sure to give prompts unique names if you don't want to overwrite previous values.

Type: String|Function

The message to be displayed to the user.

Type: String|Function

Optional default prompt value. Async functions are supported too.

Type: Function

Receive the user input and return the formatted value to be used inside the program. The value returned will be added to the response object.

The function signature is (val, values), where val is the value from the current prompt and values is the current response object in case you need to format based on previous responses.

Example:

{
  type: 'number',
  name: 'price',
  message: 'Enter price',
  format: val => Intl.NumberFormat(undefined, { style: 'currency', currency: 'USD' }).format(val);
}

Type: Function

Callback for when the prompt is rendered. The function receives kleur as its first argument and this refers to the current prompt.

Example:

{
  type: 'number',
  message: 'This message will be overridden',
  onRender(kleur) {
    this.msg = kleur.cyan('Enter a number');
  }
}

Type: Function

Callback for when the state of the current prompt changes. The function signature is (state) where state is an object with a snapshot of the current state. The state object has two properties value and aborted. E.g { value: 'This is ', aborted: false }

Type: Stream

By default, prompts uses process.stdin for receiving input and process.stdout for writing output. If you need to use different streams, for instance process.stderr, you can set these with the stdin and stdout properties.

• text
• password
• invisible
• number
• confirm
• list
• toggle
• select
• multiselect
• autocompleteMultiselect
• autocomplete
• date

Text prompt for free text input.

Hit tab to autocomplete to initial value when provided.

{
  type: 'text',
  name: 'value',
  message: `What's your twitter handle?`
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Password prompt with masked input.

This prompt is a similar to a prompt of type 'text' with style set to 'password'.

{
  type: 'password',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Tell me a secret'
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Prompts user for invisible text input.

This prompt is working like sudo where the input is invisible. This prompt is a similar to a prompt of type 'text' with style set to 'invisible'.

{
  type: 'invisible',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Enter password'
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Prompts user for number input.

You can type in numbers and use up/down to increase/decrease the value. Only numbers are allowed as input. Hit tab to autocomplete to initial value when provided.

{
  type: 'number',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'How old are you?',
  initial: 0,
  style: 'default',
  min: 2,
  max: 10
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Classic yes/no prompt.

Hit y or n to confirm/reject.

{
  type: 'confirm',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Can you confirm?',
  initial: true
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

List prompt that return an array.

Similar to the text prompt, but the output is an Array containing the string separated by separator.

{
  type: 'list',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Enter keywords',
  initial: '',
  separator: ','
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Interactive toggle/switch prompt.

Use tab or arrow keys/tab/space to switch between options.

{
  type: 'toggle',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Can you confirm?',
  initial: true,
  active: 'yes',
  inactive: 'no'
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Interactive select prompt.

Use up/down to navigate. Use tab to cycle the list.

{
  type: 'select',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Pick a color',
  choices: [
    { title: 'Red', description: 'This option has a description', value: '#ff0000' },
    { title: 'Green', value: '#00ff00', disabled: true },
    { title: 'Blue', value: '#0000ff' }
  ],
  initial: 1
}

↑ back to: Prompt types

Interactive multi-select prompt. Autocomplete is a searchable multiselect prompt with the same options. Useful for long lists.

Use space to toggle select/unselect and up/down to navigate. Use tab to cycle the list. You can also use right to select and left to deselect. By default this prompt returns an array containing the values of the selected items - not their display title.

{
  type: 'multiselect',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Pick colors',
  choices: [
    { title: 'Red', value: '#ff0000' },
    { title: 'Green', value: '#00ff00', disabled: true },
    { title: 'Blue', value: '#0000ff', selected: true }
  ],
  max: 2,
  hint: '- Space to select. Return to submit'
}

This is one of the few prompts that don't take a initial value. If you want to predefine selected values, give the choice object an selected property of true.

↑ back to: Prompt types

Interactive auto complete prompt.

The prompt will list options based on user input. Type to filter the list. Use ⇧/⇩ to navigate. Use tab to cycle the result. Use Page Up/Page Down (on Mac: fn + ⇧ / ⇩) to change page. Hit enter to select the highlighted item below the prompt.

The default suggests function is sorting based on the title property of the choices. You can overwrite how choices are being filtered by passing your own suggest function.

{
  type: 'autocomplete',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Pick your favorite actor',
  choices: [
    { title: 'Cage' },
    { title: 'Clooney', value: 'silver-fox' },
    { title: 'Gyllenhaal' },
    { title: 'Gibson' },
    { title: 'Grant' }
  ]
}

Example on what a suggest function might look like:

const suggestByTitle = (input, choices) =>
    Promise.resolve(choices.filter(i => i.title.slice(0, input.length) === input))

↑ back to: Prompt types

Interactive date prompt.

Use left/right/tab to navigate. Use up/down to change date.

{
  type: 'date',
  name: 'value',
  message: 'Pick a date',
  initial: new Date(1997, 09, 12),
  validate: date => date > Date.now() ? 'Not in the future' : true
}

Default locales:

{
  months: [
    'January', 'February', 'March', 'April',
    'May', 'June', 'July', 'August',
    'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'
  ],
  monthsShort: [
    'Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun',
    'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec'
  ],
  weekdays: [
    'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday',
    'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'
  ],
  weekdaysShort: [
    'Sun', 'Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri', 'Sat'
  ]
}

Formatting: See full list of formatting options in the wiki

↑ back to: Prompt types

Many of the prompts are based on the work of derhuerst.

MIT © Terkel Gjervig