@inquirer/search

Interactive search prompt component for command line interfaces.

Installation

npm install @inquirer/prompts

yarn add @inquirer/prompts

npm install @inquirer/search

yarn add @inquirer/search

Usage

import { search, Separator } from '@inquirer/prompts';
// Or
// import search, { Separator } from '@inquirer/search';

const answer = await search({
  message: 'Select an npm package',
  source: async (input, { signal }) => {
    if (!input) {
      return [];
    }

    const response = await fetch(
      `https://registry.npmjs.org/-/v1/search?text=${encodeURIComponent(input)}&size=20`,
      { signal },
    );
    const data = await response.json();

    return data.objects.map((pkg) => ({
      name: pkg.package.name,
      value: pkg.package.name,
      description: pkg.package.description,
    }));
  },
});

Options

source function

The full signature type of source is as follow:

function(
  term: string | void,
  opt: { signal: AbortSignal },
): Promise<ReadonlyArray<Choice<Value> | Separator>>;

When term is undefined, it means the search term input is empty. You can use this to return default choices, or return an empty array.

Aside from returning the choices:

1. An AbortSignal is passed in to cancel ongoing network calls when the search term change.
2. Separators can be used to organize the list.

Choice object

The Choice object is typed as

type Choice<Value> = {
  value: Value;
  name?: string;
  description?: string;
  short?: string;
  disabled?: boolean | string;
};

Here's each property:

• value: The value is what will be returned by await search().
• name: This is the string displayed in the choice list.
• description: Option for a longer description string that'll appear under the list when the cursor highlight a given choice.
• short: Once the prompt is done (press enter), we'll use short if defined to render next to the question. By default we'll use name.
• disabled: Disallow the option from being selected. If disabled is a string, it'll be used as a help tip explaining why the choice isn't available.

Theming

You can theme a prompt by passing a theme object option. The theme object only need to includes the keys you wish to modify, we'll fallback on the defaults for the rest.

type Theme = {
  prefix: string;
  spinner: {
    interval: number;
    frames: string[];
  };
  style: {
    answer: (text: string) => string;
    message: (text: string) => string;
    error: (text: string) => string;
    help: (text: string) => string;
    highlight: (text: string) => string;
    description: (text: string) => string;
    disabled: (text: string) => string;
    searchTerm: (text: string) => string;
  };
  icon: {
    cursor: string;
  };
  helpMode: 'always' | 'never' | 'auto';
};

theme.helpMode

• auto (default): Hide the help tips after an interaction occurs.
• always: The help tips will always show and never hide.
• never: The help tips will never show.

Recipes

Debounce search

import { setTimeout } from 'node:timers/promises';
import { search } from '@inquirer/prompts';

const answer = await search({
  message: 'Select an npm package',
  source: async (input, { signal }) => {
    await setTimeout(300);
    if (signal.aborted) return [];

    // Do the search
    fetch(...)
  },
});

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Simon Boudrias (twitter: @vaxilart)
Licensed under the MIT license.