create-node-cli: Build a Node.js CLI Quickly

One of the perks of being a Software Engineer is you can automate a lot of your grunt work with CLI automation tools. These tools can save tons of your hours on a monthly basis. But making these tools can be a bit of a hassle. And if you are planning to open-source them then you need to make sure that they are up-to-mark.

What if I tell you that you can create such CLIs in less than two minutes? This CLI will be production-ready with a beautiful header and proper help command.

Now I am going to walk you through each step of how you can build such CLIs.

#→ Step #1

Make sure you have Node installed in your system. You can download & install the Node from here. If you are confused about which version to download & use then you should take a look at this watch this video.

You can skip this step if you have Node already installed.

#→ Step #2

Now that you have Node installed on your computer, you can easily build a production-ready CLI. For that, open your terminal. Navigate to the directory in your terminal where you want to create the CLI & then type in the following command.

npx create-node-cli

#→ Step #3

Once you run the above command, you will see a couple of questions on your screen. Give your CLI a name, some description, version, run command, etc.

Once it's done, open your CLI directory in any code editor of your choice. For now, I am going with VSCode.

#→ Step #4

Type in the following command in the terminal to locally link the CLI in your terminal.

npm link

Now you can run the CLI with the command you provided in step #3.

#→ Step #5

Now I am going to open the index.js file and add a console log in there.

I am going to open my terminal and type in cli and press Enter.

And there you have it, folks! You have a production-ready CLI ready in just under 2 mins.