💻 Termost

Get the most of your terminal

✨ Features

Termost allows building command line tools in a minute thanks to its:

Fluent syntax to express your CLI configurations with instructions such as:
- Subcommand support
- Long and short option support
- User input support
- Task support
Shareable output between instructions
Auto-generated help and version metadata
TypeScript support to foster a type-safe API
Built-in helpers to make stdin/stdout management a breeze (including exec, and message helpers...)

🚀 Quickstart

Install the library:

# Npm
npm install termost
# Pnpm
pnpm add termost
# Yarn
yarn add termost

Once you're done, you can play with the API:

#!/usr/bin/env node

import { helpers, termost } from "termost";
import { name, version } from "../package.json" with { type: "json" }; // Depending on your `package.json` location.

type ProgramContext = {
	globalFlag: string;
};

type DebugCommandContext = {
	localFlag: string;
};

const program = termost<ProgramContext>({
	name,
	description: "CLI description",
	version,
	onException(error) {
		console.error(`Error logic ${error.message}`);
	},
	onShutdown() {
		console.log("Clean-up logic");
	},
});

program.option({
	key: "globalFlag",
	name: { long: "global", short: "g" },
	description:
		"A global flag/option example accessible by all commands (key is used to persist the value into the context object)",
	defaultValue:
		"A default value can be set if no flag is provided by the user",
});

program
	.command({
		name: "build",
		description:
			"A custom command example runnable via `bin-name build` (command help available via `bin-name build --help`)",
	})
	.task({
		label: "A label can be displayed to follow the task progress",
		async handler() {
			await fakeBuild();
		},
	});

program
	.command<DebugCommandContext>({
		name: "debug",
		description: "A command to play with Termost capabilities",
	})
	.option({
		key: "localFlag",
		name: "local",
		description: "A local flag accessible only by the `debug` command",
		defaultValue: "local-value",
	})
	.task({
		handler(context, argv) {
			helpers.message(`Hello, I'm the ${argv.command} command`);
			helpers.message(`Context value = ${JSON.stringify(context)}`);
			helpers.message(`Argv value = ${JSON.stringify(argv)}`);
		},
	});

const fakeBuild = async () => {
	return new Promise((resolve) => {
		setTimeout(resolve, 3000);
	});
};

Depending on the command, the output will look like this (bin-name is the program name automatically retrieved from the package.json>name):

Command	Preview
`bin-name --help`
`bin-name debug --help`
`bin-name build`
`bin-name debug`

✍️ Usage

Here's an API overview:

command({ name, description })

The command API creates a new subcommand context.
Please note that the root command context is shared across subcommands but subcommand's contexts are scoped and not accessible between each other.

#!/usr/bin/env node

import { termost, helpers } from "termost";
import { name, version } from "../package.json" with { type: "json" }; // Depending on your `package.json` location.

const program = termost({
	name,
	description: "CLI description",
	version,
});

program
	.command({
		name: "build",
		description: "Transpile and bundle in production mode",
	})
	.task({
		handler(context, argv) {
			helpers.message(`👋 Hello, I'm the ${argv.command} command`);
		},
	});

program
	.command({
		name: "watch",
		description: "Rebuild your assets on any code change",
	})
	.task({
		handler(context, argv) {
			helpers.message(`👋 Hello, I'm the ${argv.command} command`, {
				type: "warning",
			});
		},
	});

input({ key, label, type, skip, ...typeParameters })

The input API creates an interactive prompt.
It supports several types:

#!/usr/bin/env node

import { termost, helpers } from "termost";
import { name, version } from "../package.json" with { type: "json" }; // Depending on your `package.json` location.

type ProgramContext = {
	input1: "singleOption1" | "singleOption2";
	input2: Array<"multipleOption1" | "multipleOption2">;
	input3: boolean;
	input4: string;
};

const program = termost<ProgramContext>({
	name,
	description: "CLI description",
	version,
});

program
	.input({
		type: "select",
		key: "input1",
		label: "What is your single choice?",
		options: ["singleOption1", "singleOption2"],
		defaultValue: "singleOption2",
	})
	.input({
		type: "multiselect",
		key: "input2",
		label: "What is your multiple choices?",
		options: ["multipleOption1", "multipleOption2"],
		defaultValue: ["multipleOption2"],
	})
	.input({
		type: "confirm",
		key: "input3",
		label: "Are you sure to skip next input?",
		defaultValue: false,
	})
	.input({
		type: "text",
		key: "input4",
		label: (context) =>
			`Dynamic input label generated from a contextual value: ${context.input1}`,
		defaultValue: "Empty input",
		skip(context) {
			return Boolean(context.input3);
		},
	})
	.task({
		handler(context) {
			helpers.message(JSON.stringify(context, null, 4));
		},
	});

option({ key, name, description, defaultValue, skip })

The option API defines a contextual CLI option.
The option value can be accessed through its key property from the current context.

#!/usr/bin/env node

import { termost, helpers } from "termost";
import { name, version } from "../package.json" with { type: "json" }; // Depending on your `package.json` location.

type ProgramContext = {
	optionWithAlias: number;
	optionWithoutAlias: string;
};

const program = termost<ProgramContext>({
	name,
	description: "CLI description",
	version,
});

program
	.option({
		key: "optionWithAlias",
		name: { long: "shortOption", short: "s" },
		description: "Useful CLI flag",
		defaultValue: 0,
	})
	.option({
		key: "optionWithoutAlias",
		name: "longOption",
		description: "Useful CLI flag",
		defaultValue: "defaultValue",
	})
	.task({
		handler(context) {
			helpers.message(JSON.stringify(context, null, 2));
		},
	});

task({ key, label, handler, skip })

The task executes a handler (either a synchronous or an asynchronous one).
The output can be either:

Displayed gradually if no label is provided
Displayed until the promise is fulfilled if a label property is specified (in the meantime, a spinner with the label is showcased)

#!/usr/bin/env node

import { helpers, termost } from "../src";
import { name, version } from "../package.json" with { type: "json" }; // Depending on your `package.json` location.

type ProgramContext = {
	computedFromOtherTaskValues: "big" | "small";
	execOutput: string;
	size: number;
};

const program = termost<ProgramContext>({
	name,
	description: "CLI description",
	version,
});

program
	.task({
		key: "size",
		label: "Task with returned value (persisted)",
		async handler() {
			return 45;
		},
	})
	.task({
		label: "Task with side-effect only (no persisted value)",
		async handler() {
			await wait(500);
			// @note: side-effect only handler
		},
	})
	.task({
		key: "computedFromOtherTaskValues",
		label: "Task can also access other persisted task values",
		handler(context) {
			if (context.size > 2000) {
				return Promise.resolve("big");
			}

			return Promise.resolve("small");
		},
	})
	.task({
		key: "execOutput",
		label: "Or even execute external commands thanks to its provided helpers",
		handler() {
			return helpers.exec("echo 'Hello from shell'");
		},
	})
	.task({
		label: "A task can be skipped as well",
		async handler() {
			await wait(2000);

			return Promise.resolve("Super long task");
		},
		skip(context) {
			const needOptimization = context.size > 2000;

			return !needOptimization;
		},
	})
	.task({
		label: (context) =>
			`A task can have a dynamic label generated from contextual values: ${context.computedFromOtherTaskValues}`,
		async handler() {},
	})
	.task({
		handler(context) {
			helpers.message(
				`If you don't specify a label, the handler is executed in "live mode" (the output is not hidden by the label and is displayed gradually).`,
				{ label: "Label & console output" },
			);

			helpers.message(
				`A task with a specified "key" can be retrieved here. Size = ${context.size}. If no "key" was specified the task returned value cannot be persisted across program instructions.`,
				{ label: "Context management" },
			);
		},
	})
	.task({
		handler(context) {
			const content =
				"The `message` helpers can be used to display task content in a nice way";

			helpers.message(content, {
				label: "Output formatting",
			});
			helpers.message(content, { type: "warning" });
			helpers.message(content, { type: "error" });
			helpers.message(content, { type: "success" });
			helpers.message(content, {
				type: "information",
				label: "👋 You can also customize the label",
			});
			console.log(
				helpers.format(
					"\nYou can also have a total control on the formatting through the `format` helper.",
					{
						color: "white",
						modifiers: ["italic", "strikethrough", "bold"],
					},
				),
			);

			console.info(JSON.stringify(context, null, 2));
		},
	});

const wait = (delay: number) => {
	return new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
};

🤩 Built with Termost

Quickbundle The zero-configuration transpiler and bundler for the web.

💙 Acknowledgements

This project is built upon solid open-source foundations. We'd like to thank:

enquirer for managing input internals
listr2 for managing task internals

📖 License

MIT