@inquirer/external-editor

What is @inquirer/external-editor?

@inquirer/external-editor is a Node.js package that allows users to open an external text editor from a command-line interface (CLI) application, enabling them to edit text in their preferred editor and then return the edited text back to the application.

What are @inquirer/external-editor's main functionalities?

Launch External Editor

This feature allows you to launch the user's default text editor from a Node.js application. The `edit` function opens the editor, waits for the user to finish editing, and then returns the edited text. This is useful for applications that require complex text input that is more easily handled in a full-featured text editor.

const { edit } = require('@inquirer/external-editor');

const userInput = edit();
console.log('User input:', userInput);

Handle Editor Errors

This feature provides an asynchronous way to handle the external editor process, including error handling. The `editAsync` function takes a callback that receives any errors and the user's input. This is useful for non-blocking operations in applications that need to handle potential errors when launching or using the external editor.

const { editAsync } = require('@inquirer/external-editor');

editAsync((err, userInput) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('Error:', err);
  } else {
    console.log('User input:', userInput);
  }
});

Other packages similar to @inquirer/external-editor

external-editor

The `external-editor` package is a similar library that allows launching an external text editor from a Node.js application. It provides both synchronous and asynchronous methods to open the editor and retrieve the edited text. Compared to @inquirer/external-editor, it offers similar functionality but is not specifically tied to the Inquirer.js ecosystem.

edit-string

The `edit-string` package provides a simple interface to open a string in the user's default text editor and return the edited result. It is a lightweight alternative to @inquirer/external-editor, focusing on simplicity and ease of use without additional features like error handling or asynchronous operations.

README

@inquirer/external-editor

A Node.js module to edit a string with the user's preferred text editor using $VISUAL or $EDITOR.

[!NOTE] This package is a replacement for the unmaintained external-editor. It includes security fixes.

Special Thanks

Graphite is the AI developer productivity platform helping teams on GitHub ship higher quality software, faster

Installation

npm	yarn
npm install @inquirer/external-editor	yarn add @inquirer/external-editor

Usage

A simple example using the edit function

import { edit } from '@inquirer/external-editor';

const data = edit('\n\n# Please write your text above');
console.log(data);

Example relying on the class construct

import {
  ExternalEditor,
  CreateFileError,
  ReadFileError,
  RemoveFileError,
  LaunchEditorError,
} from '@inquirer/external-editor';

try {
  const editor = new ExternalEditor();
  const text = editor.run(); // the text is also available in editor.text

  if (editor.lastExitStatus !== 0) {
    console.log('The editor exited with a non-zero code');
  }

  // Do things with the text
  editor.cleanup();
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof CreateFileError) {
    console.log('Failed to create the temporary file');
  } else if (err instanceof ReadFileError) {
    console.log('Failed to read the temporary file');
  } else if (err instanceof LaunchEditorError) {
    console.log('Failed to launch your editor');
  } else if (err instanceof RemoveFileError) {
    console.log('Failed to remove the temporary file');
  } else {
    throw err;
  }
}

API

Convenience Functions

• edit(text, config)
  • text (string) Optional Defaults to empty string
  • config (Config) Optional Options for temporary file creation
  • Returns (string) The contents of the file
  • Could throw CreateFileError, ReadFileError, or LaunchEditorError, or RemoveFileError
• editAsync(text, callback, config)
  • text (string) Optional Defaults to empty string
  • callback (function (error?, text?))
    • error could be of type CreateFileError, ReadFileError, LaunchEditorError, or RemoveFileError
    • text (string) The contents of the file
  • config (Config) Optional Options for temporary file creation

Errors

• CreateFileError Error thrown if the temporary file could not be created.
• ReadFileError Error thrown if the temporary file could not be read.
• RemoveFileError Error thrown if the temporary file could not be removed during cleanup.
• LaunchEditorError Error thrown if the editor could not be launched.

External Editor Public Methods

• new ExternalEditor(text, config)
  • text (string) Optional Defaults to empty string
  • config (Config) Optional Options for temporary file creation
  • Could throw CreateFileError
• run() Launches the editor.
  • Returns (string) The contents of the file
  • Could throw LaunchEditorError or ReadFileError
• runAsync(callback) Launches the editor in an async way
  • callback (function (error?, text?))
    • error could be of type ReadFileError or LaunchEditorError
    • text (string) The contents of the file
• cleanup() Removes the temporary file.
  • Could throw RemoveFileError

External Editor Public Properties

• text (string) readonly The text in the temporary file.
• editor.bin (string) The editor determined from the environment.
• editor.args (array) Default arguments for the bin
• tempFile (string) Path to temporary file. Can be changed, but be careful as the temporary file probably already exists and would need be removed manually.
• lastExitStatus (number) The last exit code emitted from the editor.

Config Options

• prefix (string) Optional A prefix for the file name.
• postfix (string) Optional A postfix for the file name. Useful if you want to provide an extension.
• mode (number) Optional Which mode to create the file with. e.g. 644
• dir (string) Optional Which path to store the file.

Why Synchronous?

Everything is synchronous to make sure the editor has complete control of the stdin and stdout. Testing has shown async launching of the editor can lead to issues when using readline or other packages which try to read from stdin or write to stdout. Seeing as this will be used in an interactive CLI environment, I made the decision to force the package to be synchronous. If you know a reliable way to force all stdin and stdout to be limited only to the child_process, please submit a PR.

If async is really needed, you can use editAsync or runAsync. If you are using readline or have anything else listening to the stdin or you write to stdout, you will most likely have problem, so make sure to remove any other listeners on stdin, stdout, or stderr.

Demo

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Simon Boudrias (twitter: @vaxilart)
Licensed under the MIT license.