A Node CLI - in 2017

Hi I'm Gant

AKA

AKA

Why CLI?

CLI's Are Great For

• Tooling
• Lists
• Repetitive Tasks
• Composable Workflow

CLIs Collect Ideas

Open Source and Teams Unite!

CLI's by friends

Another CLI

Writing Node CLIs

How Google Tells You

1

Look at me CLI

  #!/usr/bin/env node

  console.log("I'm Mr. Meeseeks")

 ...
  "author": "Gant Laborde",
  "license": "MIT",
+ "bin": {
+   "looksy": "./meeseeks.js"
+ }
}

meeseeks.js

package.json

Writing Node CLIs

How a few hours of research tells you

2

Look at me CLI

  const program = require('commander');

  program
   .arguments('<person>')
   .option('-m, --me <me>', 'The person to look at')
   .action((file) => {
     console.log(`I'm Mr. ${person} look at ${program.me}!`
   })
   .parse(process.argv)

  $ looksy Meeseeks -m me
  # I'm Mr. Meeseeks look at me!

Writing Node CLIs

Using Gluegun

3

Look at me CLI

  $ npm install -g gluegun@next
  $ gluegun new looksy
  $ cd looksy
  $ npm link
  $ looksy

  Welcome to your CLI

modify src/commands/looksy.js

module.exports = {
  name: 'looksy',
  run: async (context) => {
    const { print, parameters } = context
    print.info(`I'm ${parameters.first} Look at ${parameters.options.me}`)
  }
}

looksy.js

So why Gluegun?

Let's go back to hello world (looksy)

    module.exports = {
      name: 'looksy',
      run: async (context) => {
        // gluegun provides all these features and more!
        const { system, print, filesystem, strings, parameters } = context
    
        // ...and be the CLI you wish to see in the world
        const awesome = strings.trim(system.run('whoami'))
        const moreAwesome = strings.kebabCase(`${awesome} and a keyboard`)
        const contents = `🚨 Warning! ${moreAwesome} coming thru! 🚨`
        const home = process.env['HOME']
        filesystem.write(`${home}/realtalk.json`, { contents })
    
        print.info(`${print.checkmark} I'm ${parameters.first}`)
        print.warning(`${print.checkmark} Look at`)
        print.success(`${print.checkmark} ${parameters.options.me}`)
      }
    }

looksy.js 🌟

We fancy now

What else can Gluegun do?

What makes Gluegun Better?

The Real World Story

The Problem

https://github.com/infinitered/solidarity

Solidarity

Why Gluegun?

Thinking Features

Thinking Plugins

Why Typescript?

Let's check the code!

🌟 Summary 🌟

• CLIs are useful

• CLIs are easy

• Gluegun is scalable

• Solidarity is Awesome

@GantLaborde

Slides Available

https://slides.com/gantlaborde/useful-cli

Articles on Medium

Updates on Twitter

Code on GitHub

Thanks GNO Code

AND THANK YOU!