Command-line interfaces (CLIs) built in Node.js allow you to automate repetitive tasks while leveraging the vast Node.js ecosystem. And thanks to package managers like npm and yarn , these can be easily distributed and consumed across multiple platforms. In this post we'll look at why you might want to write a CLI, how to use Node.js for it, some useful packages and how you can distribute your new CLI.

Why create CLIs with Node.js

One of the reasons why Node.js got so popular is the rich package ecosystem with over 900,000 packages in the npm registry. By writing your CLIs in Node.js you can tap into this ecosystem including it's big amount of CLI-focused packages. Among others:

inquirer , enquirer or prompts for complex input prompts

, or for complex input prompts email-prompt for convenient email input prompts

for convenient email input prompts chalk or kleur for colored output

or for colored output ora for beautiful spinners

for beautiful spinners boxen for drawing boxes around your output

for drawing boxes around your output stmux for a tmux like UI

for a like UI listr for progress lists

for progress lists ink to build CLIs with React

to build CLIs with React meow or arg for basic argument parsing

or for basic argument parsing commander and yargs for complex argument parsing and subcommand support

and for complex argument parsing and subcommand support oclif a framework for building extensible CLIs by Heroku ( gluegun as an alternative)