yargs-interactive

Yargs Interactive

Read the blog post

Interactive (prompt) support for yargs, based on inquirer. Useful for using the same CLI for both for humans and non-humans (like CI tools). Also supports mixed mode (yay!).

This tool helps you to build command line tools without worring to parse arguments, or develop the logic to ask them.

Installation

npm install -S yargs-interactive

Then, add this code in your CLI code to get all the arguments parsed:

#!/usr/bin/env node

const yargsInteractive = require('yargs-interactive');
const options = {
  name: { type: 'input', default: 'A robot', describe: 'Enter your name' },
  likesPizza: { type: 'confirm', default: false, describe: 'Do you like pizza?' },
};

yargsInteractive()
  .usage('$0 <command> [args]')
  .interactive(options)
  .then((result) => {
    // Your business logic goes here.
    // Get the arguments from the result
    // (e.g. result.name)
    myCli(result.name);
  });

By simply wrapping your CLI code with this tool, you will get all the information you need from the user.

Note: See more usage examples in the examples folder.

Usage

It supports the following use cases

• Prompt questions with default values (full-interactive)
• Prompt just some questions (mixed mode)
• No prompt at all (ye olde yargs)

Prompt questions with default values (full-interactive)

my-cli.js

const yargsInteractive = require('yargs-interactive');

const options = {
  name: {
    type: 'input',
    default: 'nano',
    describe: 'Enter your name'
  },
  likesPizza: {
    type: 'confirm',
    default: false,
    describe: 'Do you like pizza?'
  },
};

yargsInteractive()
  .usage('$0 <command> [args]')
  .interactive(options)
  .then((result) => {
    // The tool will prompt questions and will output your answers.
    // TODO: Do something with the result (e.g result.name)
    console.log(result)
  });

Usage in terminal

➜ node my-cli.js --interactive

If you want to use interactive mode always, just set the --interactive`` parameter to true` by default.

const options = {
  interactive: { default: true },
  ...
};

yargsInteractive()
  .usage('$0 <command> [args]')
  .interactive(options)
  .then((result) => {
    // The tool will prompt questions and will output your answers.
    // TODO: Do something with the result (e.g result.name)
    console.log(result)
  });

And then simply call your CLI with no parameters.

➜ node my-cli.js

Options

Property	Type	Description
type	string	(Required) The type of the option to prompt (e.g. input, confirm, etc.). We provide all prompt types supported by Inquirer.
describe	string	(Required) The message to display when prompting the option (e.g. Do you like pizza?)
default	any	The default value of the option.
prompt	string	(Default is if-empty) Property to decide whether to prompt the option or not. Possible values: always, never and if-empty, which prompts the option if the value wasn't set via command line parameters or using the default property.

Prompt just some questions (mixed mode)

You can opt-out options from interactive mode by setting the prompt property to never.

my-cli.js

const yargsInteractive = require('yargs-interactive');

const options = {
  name: {
    type: 'input',
    name: 'nano',
    describe: 'Enter your name'
  },
  likesPizza: {
    type: 'confirm',
    default: false,
    describe: 'Do you like pizza?',
    prompt: 'never' // because everyone likes pizza
  },
};

yargsInteractive()
  .usage('$0 <command> [args]')
  .interactive(options)
  .then((result) => {
    // The tool will prompt questions output the answers.
    // You can opt-out options by using `prompt: 'never'`. For these properties, it
    // will use the value sent by parameter (--likesPizza) or the default value.
    // TODO: Do something with the result (e.g result.name)
    console.log(result);
  });

By default, its value is if-empty, prompting the question to the user if the value was not set via command line parameters or using the default property. Last, you can use always to always prompt the option.

Usage in terminal

➜ node my-cli.js --name='Johh' --interactive

No prompt at all (ye olde yargs)

my-cli.js

const yargsInteractive = require('yargs-interactive');

const options = {
  name: {
    type: 'input',
    name: 'nano',
    describe: 'Enter your name'
  },
  likesPizza: {
    type: 'confirm',
    default: false,
    describe: 'Do you like pizza?'
  },
};

yargsInteractive()
  .usage('$0 <command> [args]')
  .interactive(options)
  .then((result) => {
    // The tool will output the values set via parameters or
    // the default value (if not provided).
    // TODO: Do something with the result (e.g result.name)
    console.log(result);
  });

Usage in terminal

➜ node my-cli.js --name='Johh' --likesPizza