BroCLI

Run CLI commands with fully typed handlers

Code

Defining options

Start defining options using string, number, boolean and positionalfunctions:

import { string, boolean, number, positional } from '@drizzle-team/brocli'

const commandOptions = {
    opt1: string(),
    opt2: boolean('flag').alias('f'),
    opt3: number().int(),
    opt4: positional().enum('one', 'two')
    // And so on... 
}

Keys of the object passed to the object storing options determine to which keys parsed options will be assigned to inside your handler.

Option builder

Initial builder functions:

• string(name?: string) - defines option as a string-type option which requires data to be passed as --option=value or --option value

  • name - name by which option is passed in cli args
    If not specified, defaults to key of this option
    ⚠️ - must not contain = character, not be in --help,-h,--version,-v and be unique per each command
    💬 - will be automatically prefixed with - if one character long, -- if longer
    If you wish to have only single hyphen as a prefix on multi character name - simply specify name with it: string('-longname')

• number(name?: string) - defines option as a number-type option which requires data to be passed as --option=value or --option value

  • name - name by which option is passed in cli args
    If not specified, defaults to key of this option
    ⚠️ - must not contain = character, not be in --help,-h,--version,-v and be unique per each command
    💬 - will be automatically prefixed with - if one character long, -- if longer
    If you wish to have only single hyphen as a prefix on multi character name - simply specify name with it: number('-longname')

• boolean(name?: string) - defines option as a boolean-type option which requires data to be passed as --option

  • name - name by which option is passed in cli args
    If not specified, defaults to key of this option
    ⚠️ - must not contain = character, not be in --help,-h,--version,-v and be unique per each command
    💬 - will be automatically prefixed with - if one character long, -- if longer
    If you wish to have only single hyphen as a prefix on multi character name - simply specify name with it: boolean('-longname')

• positional(displayName?: string) - defines option as a positional-type option which requires data to be passed after a command as command value

  • displayName - name by which option is passed in cli args
    If not specified, defaults to key of this option
    ⚠️ - does not consume options and data that starts with

Extensions:

• .alias(...aliases: string[]) - defines aliases for option

  • aliases - aliases by which option is passed in cli args
    ⚠️ - must not contain = character, not be in --help,-h,--version,-v and be unique per each command
    💬 - will be automatically prefixed with - if one character long, -- if longer
    If you wish to have only single hyphen as a prefix on multi character alias - simply specify alias with it: .alias('-longname')

• .desc(description: string) - defines description for option to be displayed in help command

• .required() - sets option as required, which means that application will print an error if it is not present in cli args

• .default(value: string | boolean) - sets default value for option which will be assigned to it in case it is not present in cli args

• .hidden() - sets option as hidden - option will be omitted from being displayed in help command

• .enum(values: [string, ...string[]]) - limits values of string to one of specified here

  • values - allowed enum values

• .int() - ensures that number is an integer

• .min(value: number) - specified minimal allowed value for numbers

  • value - minimal allowed value
    ⚠️ - does not limit defaults

• .max(value: number) - specified maximal allowed value for numbers

  • value - maximal allowed value
    ⚠️ - does not limit defaults

Creating handlers

Normally, you can write handlers right in the command() function, however there might be cases where you'd want to define your handlers separately.
For such cases, you'd want to infer type of options that will be passes inside your handler.
You can do it using TypeOf type:

import { string, boolean, type TypeOf } from '@drizzle-team/brocli'

const commandOptions = {
    opt1: string(),
    opt2: boolean('flag').alias('f'),
    // And so on... 
}

export const commandHandler = (options: TypeOf<typeof commandOptions>) => {
    // Your logic goes here...
}

Or by using handler(options, myHandler () => {...})

import { string, boolean, handler } from '@drizzle-team/brocli'

const commandOptions = {
    opt1: string(),
    opt2: boolean('flag').alias('f'),
    // And so on... 
}

export const commandHandler = handler(commandOptions, (options) => {
    // Your logic goes here...
});

Defining commands

To define commands, use command() function:

import { command, type Command, string, boolean, type TypeOf } from '@drizzle-team/brocli'

const commandOptions = {
    opt1: string(),
    opt2: boolean('flag').alias('f'),
    // And so on... 
}

const commandHandler = (options: TypeOf<typeof commandOptions>) => {
    // Your logic goes here...
}

const commands: Command[] = []

commands.push(command({
    name: 'command', 
    aliases: ['c', 'cmd'],
    description: 'Description goes here',
    hidden: false,
    options: commandOptions,
    handler: commandHandler,
    help: () => 'This command works like this: ...'
}));

Parameters:

• name - name by which command is searched in cli args
  ⚠️ - must not start with - character and be unique per command collection

• aliases - aliases by which command is searched in cli args
  ⚠️ - must not start with - character and be unique per command collection

• description - description for command to be displayed in help command

• hidden - sets command as hidden - if true, command will be omitted from being displayed in help command

• options - object containing command options created using string() and boolean() functions

• handler - function, which will be executed in case of successful option parse

• help - function or string, which will be executed or printed when help is called for this command

Running commands

After defining commands, you're going to need to execute runCli() function to start command execution

import { command, type Command, runCli, string, boolean, type TypeOf } from '@drizzle-team/brocli'

const commandOptions = {
    opt1: string(),
    opt2: boolean('flag').alias('f'),
    // And so on... 
}

const commandHandler = (options: TypeOf<typeof commandOptions>) => {
    // Your logic goes here...
}

const commands: Command[] = []

commands.push(command({
    name: 'command', 
    aliases: ['c', 'cmd'],
    description: 'Description goes here',
    hidden: false,
    options: commandOptions,
    handler: commandHandler,
}));

// And so on...

runCli(commands, {
    name: 'my-program',
    version: '1.0.0',
    help: () => {
        console.log('Command list:');
        commands.forEach(c => console.log('This command does ... and has options ...'));
    }
})

💬 - in case cli arguments are not stored in process.argv in your environment, you can pass custom argument source to a second argument of runCli(), however note that first two elements of such source will be ignored as they are expected to store executable and executed file paths instead of args.
💬 - custom help and version output handlers or strings can be passed to a second argument to replace default brocli outputs for those operations with your own.

CLI

In BroCLI, command doesn't have to be the first argument, instead it may be contained in any order.
To make this possible, hovewer, option that's stated right before command should have an explicit value, even if it is a flag: --verbose true <command-name>
Options are parsed in strict mode, meaning that having any unrecognized options will result in an error.