Create CLI Template

A starter kit generator for CLI applications. This tool helps you quickly scaffold a new command-line interface application with configurations.

Features

• Generates a complete CLI application structure
• Sets up testing with Jest
• Configures ESLint for code quality
• Initializes Git repository
• Sets up Command parsing with Commander.js
• User input handling with Inquirer

Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g @richardgaunt/cli-template

# Or use directly with npx
npx @richardgaunt/cli-template my-cli-app

# For development
git clone <repository-url>
cd cli-maker
npm install
npm link

Usage

# Create a new CLI application with interactive prompts
create-cli my-cli-app

# Skip prompts and use defaults
create-cli my-cli-app --yes

# Skip git initialization
create-cli my-cli-app --no-git

# Skip dependency installation
create-cli my-cli-app --no-install

CLI Options

• [name] - Project directory/package name (optional)
• -y, --yes - Skip all prompts and use defaults
• --no-git - Skip git initialization
• --no-install - Skip dependency installation

Configuration steps

When creating a new CLI application, you'll be asked for:

1. Package/directory name: The npm package name and directory name (lowercase with hyphens)
2. Human-readable title: A prettier title for display in README and CLI output
3. Project description: A brief description of what your CLI does
4. Author: Your name (defaults to Git config)
5. License: The license to use (MIT, ISC, Apache-2.0, GPL-3.0)

Generated Project Structure

my-cli-app/
├── bin/
│   └── index.mjs        # CLI entry point
├── src/
│   ├── index.mjs        # Main module exports
│   └── index.test.js    # Tests for main module
├── tests/
│   └── index.test.mjs   # Additional tests
├── .gitignore
├── eslint.config.mjs
├── jest.config.mjs
├── package.json
└── README.md

Development

# Clone this repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd cli-maker

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Link the package locally for testing
npm link

# Run the CLI
create-cli test-app

# Run tests
npm test

# Run specific test suites
npm run test:timing
npm run test:errors
npm run test:features
npm run test:all

# Run linting
npm run lint

License

MIT © Richard Gaunt