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. myCli(result.name);
    console.log(`\nResult is:\n` + `- Name: ${result.name}\n` + `- Likes pizza: ${result.likesPizza}\n`);
  });

Now, by simply wrapping your CLI code with this tool, you'll get all the information you need from the user. For instance, save the previous snipped in a file named my-cli.js and run it in your terminal:

➜ node my-cli.js --interactive

Note: See other CLI examples in this folder.

Usage

It supports the following use cases

Prompt all questions
Prompt some questions (mixed mode)
No prompt at all (ye olde yargs)

Prompt questions (full-interactive)

my-cli.js

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

const options = {
  name: {
    type: "input",
    describe: "Enter your name"
  },
  likesPizza: {
    type: "confirm",
    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, avoiding the need of sending it as an argument, 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`, `if-no-arg` (prompts if the option was not sent via command line parameters) and `if-empty` (prompts if the value was not sent via command line parameters and it doesn't have a default property).

Prompt some questions (mixed mode)

You can opt-out options from interactive mode by setting the prompt property to never. By default, its value is if-empty, prompting the question to the user if the value was not set via command line parameters, or if it doesn't have a default property. Setting it to if-no-arg will prompt the question if no argument is provided. Lastly, you can use always to always prompt the option.

my-cli.js

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

const options = {
  name: {
    // prompt property, if not set, defaults to 'if-empty'
    // In this case, it means the question will be prompted
    // if it is not provided by args, as it doesn't have a default value.
    type: "input",
    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);
  });

Usage in terminal

➜ node my-cli.js --interactive

Notice that if you enter node my-cli.js --name='Johh' --interactive name won't be prompted either (as by default it uses if-empty).

No prompt at all (ye olde yargs)

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 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

Supplying argument does not remove prompt in `if-empty` mode

Steps to replicate

Create 'mixed mode' example as described within README.md
Invoke with --name='Johh' --interactive args (also shown in README)

Expected behaviour

I will not be prompted for name, as it has been supplied as an arg

Actual behaviour

I am prompted for name

Potential fix

I think I've fixed the problem locally with these changes:

--- a/node_modules/yargs-interactive/src/yargs-interactive.js
+++ b/node_modules/yargs-interactive/src/yargs-interactive.js
@@ -29,10 +29,15 @@ let yargsInteractive = (processArgs = process.argv.slice(2), cwd) => {
 
     // Remove options with prompt value set to 'never'
     // and options with prompt value set to 'if-empty' but no default value or value set via parameter
-    const interactiveOptions = filterObject(mergedOptions, (item, key) => (
-      item.prompt !== 'never'
-      && (item.prompt !== 'if-empty' || isEmpty(item.default) || isEmpty(argv[key]))
-    ));
+    const interactiveOptions = filterObject(mergedOptions, (item, key) => {
+      if (item.prompt === 'never') {
+        return false;
+      }
+      if (item.prompt === 'always') {
+        return true;
+      }
+      return isEmpty(item.default) && isEmpty(argv[key]);
+    });
 
     // Check if we should get the values from the interactive mode
     return argv.interactive

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