Gluegun is a delightful toolkit for building Node-based command-line interfaces (CLIs) in TypeScript or modern JavaScript, with support for:

🌯 parameters - command-line arguments and options
🎛 template - generating files from templates
🗄 patching - manipulating file contents
💾 filesystem - moving files and directories around
⚒ system - executing other command-line scripts
🎅 http - interacting with API servers
🛎 prompt - auto-complete prompts
💃 print - printing pretty colors and tables
👩‍✈️ semver - working with semantic versioning
🎻 strings - manipulating strings & template data
📦 packageManager - installing NPM packages with Yarn or NPM

In addition, gluegun supports expanding your CLI's ecosystem with a robust set of easy-to-write plugins and extensions.

You might want to use Gluegun if:

• You need to build a CLI app
• You want to have powerful tools at your fingertips
• And you don't want to give up flexibility at the same time

If so ... welcome!

Just run the gluegun CLI like this:

# spin up your new CLI
npx gluegun new movies

# choose TypeScript or Modern JavaScript
# now jump into the source
cd movies

# and link your new executable
yarn link

# and run it!
movies help

You should see your new CLI help. Open the folder in your favorite editor and start building your CLI!

Let's start with what a gluegun CLI looks like.

// in movie/src/cli.[js|ts]...

// ready
const { build } = require('gluegun')

// aim
const movieCLI = build('movie')
  .src(`${__dirname}/src`)
  .plugins('node_modules', { matching: 'movie-*' })
  .help()
  .version()
  .defaultCommand()
  .create()

// fire!
movieCLI.run()

Commands

Commands are simple objects that provide a name, optional aliases, and a function to run.

// in movie/src/commands/foo.js
module.exports = {
  name: 'foo',
  alias: 'f',
  run: async function (toolbox) {
    // gluegun provides all these features and more!
    const { system, print, filesystem, strings } = toolbox

    // ...and be the CLI you wish to see in the world
    const awesome = strings.trim(await 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(`${print.checkmark} Citius`)
    print.warning(`${print.checkmark} Altius`)
    print.success(`${print.checkmark} Fortius`)
  },
}

See the toolbox api docs for more details on what you can do.

See the runtime docs for more details on building your own CLI and join us in the #gluegun channel of the Infinite Red Community Slack (community.infinite.red) to get friendly help!

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Additionally, the first versions of the AWS Amplify CLI (a CLI toolchain for simplifying serverless web and mobile development) used Gluegun. They've since integrated Gluegun's functionality into their CLI in a bespoke way, but you can still see Gluegun patterns in their CLI.

We've assembled an all-star cast of libraries to help you build your CLI.

⭐️ ejs for templating
⭐️ semver for version investigations
⭐️ fs-jetpack for the filesystem
⭐️ yargs-parser, enquirer, colors, ora and cli-table3 for the command line
⭐️ axios & apisauce for web & apis
⭐️ cosmiconfig for flexible configuration
⭐️ cross-spawn for running sub-commands
⭐️ execa for running more sub-commands
⭐️ node-which for finding executables
⭐️ pluralize for manipulating strings

Node.js 12.0+ is required.

Here are a few community CLIs based on Gluegun plus some plugins you can use. Is yours missing? Send a PR to add it!

• Gluegun-Menu - A command menu for Gluegun-based CLIs
• Gluegun CLI-Starter - A CLI Starter for your next Gluegun CLI project

Gluegun is sponsored by Infinite Red, a premium custom mobile app and web design and development agency. We are a team of designers and developers distributed across the USA and based near Portland, Oregon. Our specialties are UI/UX design, React and React Native, Node, and more. Email [email protected] if you'd like to talk about your project!