Stdin

A lightweight and interactive standard input (stdin) utility for Node.js, designed for REPL-like experiences with support for auto-completion and history.

Internally, it leverages process.stdin in raw mode to capture key-by-key input directly from the TTY stream.

Demo with the SlimIO CLI

Requirements

• Node.js v22 or higher

Getting Started

This package is available in the Node Package Repository and can be easily installed with npm or yarn.

$ npm i @topcli/stdin
# or
$ yarn add @topcli/stdin

Usage example

import stdin from "@topcli/stdin";

const data = await stdin("Question title > ", {
  history: ["command in history 1", "command in history 2"],
  autocomplete: [
    "events",
    "events.get_info"
  ]
});
console.log(`input data: ${data}`);

Tip

The history array is passed by reference. If you plan to run multiple prompts in a loop, define a shared history array outside the loop to persist input history across calls.

API

stdin(title: null | string, options?: StdinOptions): Promise< string >

Prompts the user for input with an optional title and options. If title is null, the prompt will be displayed without a prefix.

StdinOptions interface

interface StdinOptions {
  /**
   * An array of previous commands or inputs to enable navigation with arrow keys.
   */
  history?: string[];
  /**
   * A list of strings used to suggest autocompletion while typing.
   */
  autocomplete?: string[];
}

Caution

This module does not implement history persistence or caching. If you want to persist history across sessions, consider using a package like cacache.

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Gentilhomme 💻 📖 👀 🛡️ 🐛

Alexandre Malaj 💻 📖

PierreDemailly 💻 ⚠️

License

MIT