An all-inclusive starter kit for crafting command-line interfaces (CLI) using TypeScript, driven by Node.js. This kit is meticulously designed to kick-start your development journey with a solid foundation, encompassing features such as argument parsing, environment setup, logging, testing suites, as well as code formatting and linting capabilities.

This template incorporates several key tools and libraries to enhance your CLI development experience:

• Yargs: A powerful library for parsing command-line arguments.
• Dotenv: Loads environment variables from a .env file into process.env, making it easy to manage application configuration.
• PicoColors: Lightweight and fast library for styling terminal text.
• Signale: Highly configurable logging utility, designed to be simple, but powerful.
• Jest: A delightful JavaScript Testing Framework with a focus on simplicity.
• TS-Node: TypeScript execution and REPL for Node.js.
• TSUP: The simplest and fastest way to bundle your TypeScript libraries.
• Prettier: An opinionated code formatter that supports many languages and integrates with most editors.
• ESLint: A pluggable and configurable linter tool for identifying and reporting on patterns in JavaScript and TypeScript.

Before you begin, ensure you have installed Node.js and pnpm on your system.

To start using this CLI TypeScript starter, follow these steps:

npx degit kucherenko/cli-typescript-starter my-project

or

pnpm exec degit kucherenko/cli-typescript-starter my-project

Navigate to your project directory and install the necessary dependencies:

cd my-project && pnpm install

Update the package.json to reflect your project's details:

• Rename the package:

  "name": "my-project",

• Set the command name:

  "bin": {
    "my-project": "./bin/run"
  }

Create a .env file in the root directory and configure your environment variables as needed.

This starter comes equipped with several predefined scripts to facilitate development, alongside sample commands to demonstrate the capabilities of the CLI application.

• In development mode, use pnpm start [command name] to run any command. This utilizes ts-node for a seamless development experience.
• In production, execute the CLI application directly with cli-typescript-starter [command name] to run the desired command from the built project.

• info: Prints information about the current system and Node.js configuration. This command is useful for verifying the environment in which the CLI is running.
• greeting: Demonstrates interactive prompts within the CLI. It's a great way to see how user inputs can be handled in a friendly manner.

All commands are located in the src/commands/ folder. This organization makes it easy to find and modify commands or add new ones as needed.

This starter comes with several predefined scripts to help with development:

• pnpm build - Build the project using tsup.
• pnpm build:watch - Automatically rebuild the project on file changes.
• pnpm commit - run commitizen tool for helping with commit messages.
• pnpm commitlint - lint commit messages.
• pnpm compile - Compile TypeScript files using tsc.
• pnpm clean - Remove compiled code from the dist/ directory.
• pnpm format - Check files for code style issues using Prettier.
• pnpm format:fix - Automatically fix code formatting issues with Prettier.
• pnpm lint - Check code for style issues with ESLint.
• pnpm lint:fix - Automatically fix code style issues with ESLint.
• pnpm start [command] - Run the CLI application using ts-node.
• pnpm start:node [command] - Run the CLI application from the dist/ directory.
• pnpm test - Run unit tests.
• pnpm test:watch - Run tests and watch for file changes.

This project utilizes semantic-release to automate version management and the NPM publishing process. Semantic-release automates the workflow of releasing new versions, including the generation of detailed release notes based on commit messages that follow the conventional commit format.

The publishing process is triggered automatically when changes are merged into the main branch. Here's how it works:

1. Automated Versioning: Based on the commit messages, semantic-release determines the type of version change ( major, minor, or patch) and updates the version accordingly.
2. Release Notes: It then generates comprehensive release notes detailing new features, bug fixes, and any breaking changes, enhancing clarity and communication with users.
3. NPM Publishing: Finally, semantic-release publishes the new version to the NPM registry and creates a GitHub release with the generated notes.

To ensure a smooth semantic-release process:

• Merge feature or fix branches into the main branch following thorough review and testing.
• Use conventional commit messages to help semantic-release accurately determine version changes and generate meaningful release notes.
• Configure an NPM access token as a GitHub secret under the name NPM_TOKEN for authentication during the publication process.

By integrating semantic-release, this project streamlines its release process, ensuring that versions are managed efficiently and that users are well-informed of each update through automatically generated release notes.

To contribute to this project or customize it for your needs, consider the following guidelines:

1. Code Styling: Follow the predefined code style, using Prettier for formatting and ESLint for linting, to ensure consistency.
2. Commit Messages: We use commitizen and commitlint to ensure our commit messages are consistent and follow the conventional commit format, recommended by @commitlint/config-conventional. To make a commit, you can run pnpm commit, which will guide you through creating a conventional commit message.
3. Testing: Write unit tests for new features or bug fixes using Jest. Make sure to run tests before pushing any changes.
4. Environment Variables: Use the .env file for local development. For production, ensure you configure the environment variables in your deployment environment.
5. Husky Git Hooks: This project utilizes Husky to automate linting, formatting, and commit message verification via git hooks. This ensures that code commits meet our quality and style standards without manual checks. The hooks set up include pre-commit hooks for running ESLint and Prettier, and commit-msg hooks for validating commit messages with commitlint.

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to improve this CLI TypeScript starter, please follow the standard fork-and-pull request workflow. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• Make sure your code adheres to the project's coding standards, including using Prettier for code formatting and ESLint for linting.
• Follow the conventional commit format for your commit messages. This project uses commitizen and commitlint with the @commitlint/config-conventional configuration, enforced by Husky git hooks.
• Include tests for new features or bug fixes when applicable.
• Ensure your changes are properly formatted and linted before submitting a pull request.

By adhering to these guidelines, you help maintain the quality and consistency of the project, making it easier for others to contribute and for users to understand and utilize the project effectively.

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Andrey Kucherenko

• GitHub: @kucherenko

Happy Coding!