@tsed/cli-prompts

Ts.ED’s prompt runner, powered by @clack/prompts, with a declarative schema shared across every CLI package.

Goals

@tsed/cli-prompts extracts the reusable prompt subsystem that used to live in @tsed/cli-core. The package owns:

• The canonical PromptQuestion schema used by command providers and template generators.
• A PromptRunner service that evaluates when guards, resolves defaults, and dispatches to prompt handlers.
• A Clack-based implementation of every prompt type Ts.ED commands rely on (input, password, confirm, list, checkbox, autocomplete).
• Consistent cancellation/Error handling via PromptCancelledError.

Shipping this as a standalone package lets other workspaces (and downstream CLIs) reuse the exact same behavior without duplicating abstractions or third-party dependencies.

Installation

npm install @tsed/cli-prompts @tsed/core @tsed/di

@tsed/di is required because the prompt runner is an injectable service.

Features

• Clack UX: Interactively renders all prompts via @clack/prompts (selects, multiselects, autocomplete loops, password masking, etc.).
• Declarative schema: Define questions with the standard Ts.ED structure (name, type, message, choices, default, when, validate, filter, transformer).
• Async autocomplete: Built-in support for searchable lists using the source(answers, keyword) contract used by tsed add, tsed generate, and MCP tooling.
• Cancellation safety: ensureNotCancelled() converts Ctrl+C / ESC exits into a thrown PromptCancelledError, allowing CLI hosts to render a friendly message and abort.
• Transformer & validation helpers: All handlers consistently run transformer, filter, and validate hooks before finalizing the answer.

Getting started

When you build a CLI that uses @tsed/cli-core, the prompt runner is already injected for you. To use it directly, register it inside your DI context:

import {CliPlatformTest} from "@tsed/cli-testing";
import {PromptRunner, PromptQuestion} from "@tsed/cli-prompts";

await CliPlatformTest.create();
const runner = await CliPlatformTest.invoke<PromptRunner>(PromptRunner);

const questions: PromptQuestion[] = [
  {
    type: "input",
    name: "packageName",
    message: "Package name",
    validate(value) {
      return value ? true : "Package name is required";
    }
  },
  {
    type: "autocomplete",
    name: "feature",
    message: "Choose a feature",
    source: async (_answers, keyword = "") => {
      return ["cli-core", "cli-prompts", "cli-mcp"].filter((entry) => entry.includes(keyword)).map((value) => ({name: value, value}));
    }
  }
];

const answers = await runner.run(questions);
console.log(answers);

📚 Want a larger multi-step flow? See docs/examples/cli/prompts-command-decorators.ts or the CLI prompts guide for a production-style walkthrough that stays in sync with this repository.

Supported question types

Every question can declare when guards, default values (including functions that read previous answers), pageSize, and choices metadata (name, value, short, checked, disabled).

Handling cancellations

Ctrl+C and ESC bubble up as PromptCancelledError. Catch it at the application boundary (as CliCore does) if you need custom messaging:

import {PromptRunner, PromptCancelledError} from "@tsed/cli-prompts";

try {
  await runner.run(questionList);
} catch (er) {
  if (er instanceof PromptCancelledError) {
    console.log("Prompt cancelled by the user.");
    process.exit(0);
  }
  throw er;
}

Contributors

Please read contributing guidelines here

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License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2016 - Today Romain Lenzotti

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.