cli-meow-help

Generate automatically formatted help text for meow CLI helper

Install

npm install meow cli-meow-help

Usage

const meow = require('meow');
const meowHelp = require('cli-meow-help');

const commands = {
	new: {desc: `Creates a new user account`},
	duplicate: {desc: `Duplicates a user account`}
};

const flags = {
	random: {
		desc: `Prints random data`,
		type: 'boolean',
		default: true
	}
};

const helpText = meowHelp({
	name: `cli-command`,
	flags,
	commands
});

meow(helpText, {flags});

// Now run `cli-command --help` to view the
// following auto formatted & generated help info.

API

meowHelp(options)

❯ options

Type: object

Default: ↓

{
	name = `(CLI name undefined)`,
	desc,
	commands = {},
	flags = {},
	examples = [],
	defaults = true,
	header,
	footer
}

You can specify the options below.

❯ name

Type: string
Default: (CLI name undefined)

The bin command name of the cli that's used to run the CLI. Examples: corona for the corona-cli that's installed globally or npx corona-cli for if npx is the recommended usage.

❯ desc

Type: string
Default: undefined (optional)

Optionally define a description text for the help message.

❯ commands

Type: string
Default: {} (optional)

Optionally, define a JavaScript object containing info on the CLI commands (i.e. meow inputs). Each command has a desc property to define the help text.

❯ flags

Type: string
Default: {}

Define CLI options (i.e. meow flags) just like you do with meow which is the flags JavaScript object containing each flag with an extra desc property to define the help text.

> examples

Type: Array
Default: []

List optional examples of how to use the CLI.

Check the test file for more context. Format example:

const examples = [

	{
		command: `new`,
		flags: [`random`]
	}
];

❯ defaults

Type: string
Default: true (optional)

Prints out the default values of flags. Set to false to disable.

❯ header

Type: string
Default: undefined (optional)

Optionally, add additional header information.

❯ footer

Type: string
Default: undefined (optional)

Optionally, add additional footer information.

Changelog

❯ Read the changelog here →

KEY: 📦 NEW, 👌 IMPROVE, 🐛 FIX, 📖 DOC, 🚀 RELEASE, and 🤖 TEST

I use Emoji-log, you should try it and simplify your git commits.

License & Conduct

• MIT © Ahmad Awais
• Thanks to Maarten Brakkee for initial implementation
• Code of Conduct

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Sponsor

Me (Ahmad Awais) and my incredible wife (Maedah Batool) are two engineers who fell in love with open source and then with each other. You can read more about me here. If you or your company use any of my projects or like what I’m doing then consider backing me. I'm in this for the long run. An open-source developer advocate.

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