yargs

Build interactive command-line tools by parsing arguments and generating an elegant user interface.

yargs

General JS

Build interactive command-line tools by parsing arguments and generating an elegant user interface.

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The Problem

Parsing process.argv by hand quickly becomes messy once a CLI needs subcommands, typed options, defaults, validation, and auto-generated help text.

What It Does

yargs turns argument parsing into a declarative API with commands, options, coercion, and validation, and automatically produces --help and --version output. It is a core dependency of countless CLI tools.

Installation

bash
npm install yargs

Usage Example

js
import yargs from "yargs";
import { hideBin } from "yargs/helpers";

yargs(hideBin(process.argv))
  .command(
    "greet <name>",
    "greet a user",
    (y) => y.positional("name", { type: "string" }),
    (argv) => console.log(`Hello, ${argv.name}!`)
  )
  .option("loud", { type: "boolean", default: false })
  .help()
  .parse();

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