doprdele / enquirer

Stylish, intuitive and user-friendly prompts.

Enquirer

Stylish CLI prompts that are user-friendly, intuitive and easy to create.
_{>_ Prompts should be more like conversations than inquisitions▌}

_{(Example shows Enquirer's Survey Prompt)
The terminal in all examples is Hyper, theme is hyper-monokai-extended.}

See more prompt examples

Created by jonschlinkert and doowb, Enquirer is fast, easy to use, and lightweight enough for small projects, while also being powerful and customizable enough for the most advanced use cases.

• Fast - Loads in ~4ms (that's about 3-4 times faster than a single frame of a HD movie at 60fps)
• Lightweight - Only one dependency, the excellent ansi-colors by Brian Woodward.
• Easy to implement - Uses promises and async/await and sensible defaults to make prompts easy to create and implement.
• Easy to use - Thrill your users with a better experience! Navigating around input and choices is a breeze. You can even create quizzes, or record and playback key bindings to aid with tutorials and videos.
• Intuitive - Keypress combos are available to simplify usage.
• Flexible - All prompts can be used standalone or chained together.
• Stylish - Easily override semantic styles and symbols for any part of the prompt.
• Extensible - Easily create and use custom prompts by extending Enquirer's built-in prompts.
• Pluggable - Add advanced features to Enquirer using plugins.
• Validation - Optionally validate user input with any prompt.
• Well tested - All prompts are well-tested, and tests are easy to create without having to use brittle, hacky solutions to spy on prompts or "inject" values.
• Examples - There are numerous examples and examples available to help you get started.

If you like Enquirer, please consider starring or tweeting about this project to show your support. Thanks!

>_ Ready to start making prompts your users will love? ▌

❯ Getting started

Get started with Enquirer, the most powerful and easy-to-use Node.js library for creating interactive CLI prompts.

• Install
• Usage
• Enquirer
• Prompts
  • Built-in Prompts
  • Custom Prompts
• Key Bindings
• Options
• Release History
• Performance
• About

❯ Install

Install with npm:

$ npm install enquirer --save

(Requires Node.js 8.6 or higher. Please let us know if you need support for an earlier version by creating an issue.)

❯ Usage

Single prompt

The easiest way to get started with enquirer is to pass a question object to the prompt method.

const { prompt } = require('enquirer');

const response = await prompt({
  type: 'input',
  name: 'username',
  message: 'What is your username?'
});

console.log(response);
//=> { username: 'jonschlinkert' }

(Examples with await need to be run inside an async function)

Multiple prompts

Pass an array of "question" objects to run a series of prompts.

const response = await prompt([
  {
    type: 'input',
    name: 'name',
    message: 'What is your name?'
  },
  {
    type: 'input',
    name: 'username',
    message: 'What is your username?'
  }
]);

console.log(response);
//=> { name: 'Edward Chan', username: 'edwardmchan' }

Jump to: Getting Started · Prompts · Options · Key Bindings

Todo

We're currently working on documentation for the following items. Please star and watch the repository for updates!

• Customizing symbols
• Customizing styles (palette)
• Customizing rendered input
• Customizing returned values
• Customizing key bindings
• Question validation
• Choice validation
• Skipping questions
• Async choices
• Async timers: loaders, spinners and other animations
• Links to examples

❯ Enquirer

Add Enquirer to your JavaScript project with following line of code.

const Enquirer = require('enquirer');

How does Enquirer work?

Enquirer is a prompt runner

The main export of this library is the Enquirer class, which has methods and features designed to simplify running prompts.

const { prompt } = require('enquirer');
const question = [
  {
    type: 'input',
    name: 'username',
    message: 'What is your username?'
  },
  {
    type: 'password',
    name: 'password',
    message: 'What is your password?'
  }
];

let answers = await prompt(question);
console.log(answers);

Prompts control how values are rendered and returned

Each individual prompt is a class with special features and functionality for rendering the types of values you want to show users in the terminal, and subsequently returning the types of values you need to use in your application.

How can I customize prompts?

Below in this guide you will find information about creating custom prompts. For now, we'll focus on how to customize an existing prompt.

All of the individual prompt classes in this library are exposed as static properties on Enquirer. This allows them to be used directly (without using enquirer.prompt().

Use this approach if you need to modify a prompt instance, or listen for events on the prompt.

Example

const { Input } = require('enquirer');
const prompt = new Input({
  name: 'username',
  message: 'What is your username?'
});

prompt.run()
  .then(answer => console.log('Username:', answer))
  .catch(console.error);

Enquirer

Create an instance of Enquirer.

Params

• options {Object}: (optional) Options to use with all prompts.
• answers {Object}: (optional) Answers object to initialize with.

Example

const Enquirer = require('enquirer');
const enquirer = new Enquirer();

register

Register a custom prompt type.

Params

• type {String}
• fn {Function|Prompt}: Prompt class, or a function that returns a Prompt class.
• returns {Object}: Returns the Enquirer instance

Example

const Enquirer = require('enquirer');
const enquirer = new Enquirer();
enquirer.register('customType', require('./custom-prompt'));

prompt

Prompt function that takes a "question" object or array of question objects, and returns an object with responses from the user.

Params

• questions {Array|Object}: Options objects for one or more prompts to run.
• returns {Promise}: Promise that returns an "answers" object with the user's responses.

Example

const Enquirer = require('enquirer');
const enquirer = new Enquirer();

const response = await enquirer.prompt({
  type: 'input',
  name: 'username',
  message: 'What is your username?'
});
console.log(response);

use

Use an enquirer plugin.

Params

• plugin {Function}: Plugin function that takes an instance of Enquirer.
• returns {Object}: Returns the Enquirer instance.

Example

const Enquirer = require('enquirer');
const enquirer = new Enquirer();
const plugin = enquirer => {
  // do stuff to enquire instance
};
enquirer.use(plugin);

Enquirer#prompt

Prompt function that takes a "question" object or array of question objects, and returns an object with responses from the user.

Params

• questions {Array|Object}: Options objects for one or more prompts to run.
• returns {Promise}: Promise that returns an "answers" object with the user's responses.

Example

const { prompt } = require('enquirer');
const response = await prompt({
  type: 'input',
  name: 'username',
  message: 'What is your username?'
});
console.log(response);

❯ Prompts

In this document you'll learn about Enquirer's prompts: what they look like, how they work, how to run them, available options, and how to customize the prompts or create your own prompt concept.

Getting started with Enquirer's prompts

• Prompt - The base Prompt class used by other prompts
  • Prompt Options
  • Prompt Types - The base Prompt class used by other prompts
• Built-in prompts

Prompt

The base Prompt class is used to create all other prompts.

const { Prompt } = require('enquirer');
class MyCustomPrompt extends Prompt {}

See the documentation for creating custom prompts to learn more about how this works.

Prompt Options

Each prompt takes an options object (aka "question" object), that implements the following interface:

{
  // required
  type: string | function,
  name: string | function,
  message: string | function | async function,

  // optional
  skip: boolean | function | async function
  initial: string | function | async function
  format: function | async function,
  result: function | async function,
  validate: function | async function
}

General options

All prompts take the following options.

Property	Required?	Type	Description
type	Yes	string|function	Enquirer uses this value to determine the type of prompt to run, but it's optional when prompts are run directly.
name	Yes	string|function	Used as the key for the answer on the returned values (answers) object.
message	Yes	string|function	The message to display when the prompt is rendered in the terminal.
skip	no	boolean|function	If true it will not ask that prompt.
initial	no	string|function	The default value to return if the user does not supply a value.
format	no	function	Function to format user input in the terminal.
result	no	function	Function to format the final submitted value before it's returned.
validate	no	function	Function to validate the submitted value before it's returned. This function may return a boolean or a string. If a string is returned it will be used as the validation error message.

Example usage

const { prompt } = require('enquirer');

const question = {
  type: 'input',
  name: 'username',
  message: 'What is your username?'
};

prompt(question)
  .then(answer => console.log('Answer:', answer))
  .catch(console.error);

Built-in prompts

• AutoComplete
• Confirm
• Form
• Input
• Invisible
• List
• MultiSelect
• Number
• Password
• Scale
• Select
• Snippet
• Sort
• Survey
• Text (alias for the Input prompt)
• Toggle

AutoComplete Prompt

Prompt that auto-completes as the user types, and returns the selected value as a string.

Related prompts

• Select
• MultiSelect
• Survey

Example Usage

const question = {
  type: 'autocomplete',
  name: 'country',
  message: 'Where to?',
  limit: 5,
  suggest(input, choices) {
    return choices.filter(choice => choice.message.startsWith(input));
  },
  choices: [
    'Afghanistan',
    'Albania',
    'Algeria',
    'Andorra',
    'Angola',
    ...
  ]
};

AutoComplete Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
highlight	function	dim version of primary style	The color to use when "highlighting" characters in the list that match user input.
multiple	boolean	false	Allow multiple choices to be selected.
suggest	function	Greedy match, returns true if choice message contains input string.	Function that filters choices. Takes user input and a choices array, and returns a list of matching choices.

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Confirm Prompt

Prompt that returns true or false.

Related prompts

• Input
• Numeral
• Password

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Form Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to enter and submit multiple values on a single terminal screen.

Related prompts

• Input
• Survey

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Input Prompt

Prompt that takes user input and returns a string.

Usage

const question = {
  type: 'input',
  name: 'username',
  message: 'What is your username?'
};

Related prompts

• Confirm
• Numeral
• Password

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Invisible Prompt

Prompt that takes user input, hides it from the terminal, and returns a string.

Related prompts

• Password
• Input

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

List Prompt

Prompt that returns a list of values, created by splitting the user input. The default split character is , with optional trailing whitespace.

Related prompts

• Sort
• Select

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

MultiSelect Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to select multiple items from a list of options.

Related prompts

• AutoComplete
• Select
• Survey

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Numeral Prompt

Prompt that takes a number as input.

Related prompts

• Input
• Confirm

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Password Prompt

Prompt that takes user input and masks it in the terminal. Also see the invisible prompt

Related prompts

• Input
• Invisible

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Scale Prompt

A more compact version of the Survey prompt, the Scale prompt allows the user to quickly provide feedback using a Likert Scale.

Related prompts

• AutoComplete
• Select
• Survey

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Select Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to select from a list of options.

Related prompts

• AutoComplete
• MultiSelect

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Sort Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to sort items in a list.

Example

In this example, custom styling is applied to the returned values to make it easier to see what's happening.

Related prompts

• List
• Select

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Snippet Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to replace placeholders in a snippet of code or text.

Related prompts

• Survey
• AutoComplete

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

Survey Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to provide feedback for a list of questions.

Related prompts

• Scale
• Snippet
• Select

Toggle Prompt

Prompt that allows the user to toggle between two values then returns true or false.

As with the other prompts, all parts of this prompt are customizable.

Related prompts

• Confirm
• Input
• Sort

↑ back to: Getting Started · Prompts

❯ Prompt Types

Enquirer 2.0 introduced the concept of prompt "types", with the goal of making custom prompts easier than ever to create and use. There are 4 (soon to be 5!) type classes:

• ArrayPrompt
• BooleanPrompt
• DatePrompt (Coming Soon!)
• NumberPrompt
• StringPrompt

Each type is a low-level class that may be used as a starting point for creating higher level prompts. Continue reading to learn how.

ArrayPrompt

The ArrayPrompt class is used for creating prompts that display a list of choices in the terminal. For example, Enquirer uses this class as the basis for the Select and Survey prompts.

Options

In addition to the options available to all prompts, Array prompts also support the following options.

Option	Required?	Type	Description
type	Yes	string|function	Enquirer uses this value to determine the type of prompt to run, but it's optional when prompts are run directly.
name	Yes	string|function	Used as the key for the answer on the returned values (answers) object.
message	Yes	string|function	The message to display when the prompt is rendered in the terminal.
autofocus	no	string|number	The index or name of the choice that should have focus when the prompt loads. Only one choice may have focus at a time.
initial	no	string|function	The default value to return when the user does not supply a value.
format	no	function	Function to format user input in the terminal.
result	no	function	Function to format the final submitted value before it's returned.
stdin	no	stream	The input stream to use for emitting keypress events. Defaults to process.stdin.
stdout	no	stream	The output stream to use for writing the prompt to the terminal. Defaults to process.stdout.
validate	no	function	Function to validate the submitted value before it's returned. This function may return a boolean or a string. If a string is returned it will be used as the validation error message.

Properties

Array prompts have the following instance properties and getters.

Property name	Type	Description
choices	array	Array of choices that have been normalized from choices passed on the prompt options.
cursor	number	Position of the cursor relative to the user input (string).
enabled	array	Returns an array of enabled choices.
focused	array	Returns the currently selected choice in the visible list of choices. This is similar to the concept of focus in HTML and CSS. Focused choices are always visible (on-screen). When a list of choices is longer than the list of visible choices, and an off-screen choice is focused, the list will scroll to the focused choice and re-render.
focused	Gets the currently selected choice. Equivalent to prompt.choices[prompt.index].
index	number	Position of the pointer in the visible list (array) of choices.
limit	number	The number of choices to display on-screen.
selected	array	Either a list of enabled choices (when options.multiple is true) or the currently focused choice.
visible	string

Methods

Method	Description
pointer()	Returns the visual symbol to use to identify the choice that currently has focus. The ❯ symbol is often used for this. The pointer is not always visible, as with the autocomplete prompt.
indicator()	Returns the visual symbol that indicates whether or not a choice is checked/enabled.
focus()	Sets focus on a choice, if it can be focused.

Choices

Array prompts support the choices option, which is the array of choices users will be able to select from when rendered in the terminal.

Type: string|object

Example

const { prompt } = require('enquirer');

const questions = [{
  type: 'select',
  name: 'color',
  message: 'Favorite color?',
  initial: 1,
  choices: [
    { name: 'red',   message: 'Red',   value: '#ff0000' }, //<= choice object
    { name: 'green', message: 'Green', value: '#00ff00' }, //<= choice object
    { name: 'blue',  message: 'Blue',  value: '#0000ff' }  //<= choice object
  ]
}];

let answers = await prompt(questions);
console.log('Answer:', answers.color);

Defining choices

Whether defined as a string or object, choices are normalized to the following interface:

{
  name: string;
  message: string | undefined;
  value: string | undefined;
  hint: string | undefined;
  disabled: boolean | string | undefined;
}

Example

const question = {
  name: 'fruit',
  message: 'Favorite fruit?'
  choices: ['Apple', 'Orange', 'Raspberry']
};

Normalizes to the following when the prompt is run:

const question = {
  name: 'fruit',
  message: 'Favorite fruit?'
  choices: [
    { name: 'Apple', message: 'Apple', value: 'Apple' },
    { name: 'Orange', message: 'Orange', value: 'Orange' },
    { name: 'Raspberry', message: 'Raspberry', value: 'Raspberry' }
  ]
};

Choice properties

The following properties are supported on choice objects.

Option	Type	Description
name	string	The unique key to identify a choice
message	string	The message to display in the terminal. name is used when this is undefined.
value	string	Value to associate with the choice. Useful for creating key-value pairs from user choices. name is used when this is undefined.
choices	array	Array of "child" choices.
hint	string	Help message to display next to a choice.
role	string	Determines how the choice will be displayed. Currently the only role supported is separator. Additional roles may be added in the future (like heading, etc). Please create a [feature request]
enabled	boolean	Enabled a choice by default. This is only supported when options.multiple is true or on prompts that support multiple choices, like MultiSelect.
disabled	boolean|string	Disable a choice so that it cannot be selected. This value may either be true, false, or a message to display.
indicator	string|function	Custom indicator to render for a choice (like a check or radio button).

Related prompts

• AutoComplete
• Form
• MultiSelect
• Select
• Survey

BooleanPrompt

The BooleanPrompt class is used for creating prompts that display and return a boolean value.

Returns: boolean

NumberPrompt

The NumberPrompt class is used for creating prompts that display and return a numerical value.

Returns: string|number (number, or number formatted as a string)

StringPrompt

The StringPrompt class is used for creating prompts that display and return a string value.

❯ Custom prompts

With Enquirer 2.0, custom prompts are easier than ever to create and use.

How do I create a custom prompt?

Custom prompts are created by extending Enquirer's Prompt class, or one of the built-in prompts or low-level types.

const { Prompt } = require('enquirer');

class HaiKarate extends Prompt {
  constructor(options = {}) {
    super(options);
    this.value = options.initial || 0;
    this.cursorHide();
  }
  up() {
    this.value++;
    this.render();
  }
  down() {
    this.value--;
    this.render();
  }
  render() {
    this.clear(); // clear previously rendered prompt from the terminal
    this.write(`${this.state.message}: ${this.value}`);
  }
}

// Use the prompt by creating an instance of your custom prompt class.
const prompt = new HaiKarate({
  message: 'How many sprays do you want?',
  initial: 10
});

prompt.run()
  .then(answer => console.log('Sprays:', answer))
  .catch(console.error);

If you want to be able to specify your prompt by type so that it may be used alongside other prompts, you will need to first create an instance of Enquirer.

const Enquirer = require('enquirer');
const enquirer = new Enquirer();

Then use the .register() method to add your custom prompt.

enquirer.register('haikarate', HaiKarate);

Now you can do the following when defining "questions".

let spritzer = require('cologne-drone');
let answers = await enquirer.prompt([
  {
    type: 'haikarate',
    name: 'cologne',
    message: 'How many sprays do you need?',
    initial: 10,
    async onSubmit(name, value) {
      await spritzer.activate(value); //<= activate drone
      return value;
    }
  }
]);

❯ Key Bindings

All prompts

These key combinations may be used with all prompts.

command	description
ctrl+c	Cancel the prompt.
ctrl+g	Reset the prompt to its initial state.

Move cursor

These combinations may be used on prompts that support user input, such as the input prompt, password prompt, and invisible prompt).

command	description
left	Move the cursor forward one character.
right	Move the cursor back one character.
ctrl+a	Move cursor to the start of the line
ctrl+e	Move cursor to the end of the line
ctrl+b	Move cursor back one character
ctrl+f	Move cursor forward one character
ctrl+x	Toggle between first and cursor position

Edit Input

These key combinations may be used on prompts that support user input, such as the input prompt, password prompt, and invisible prompt).

command	description
ctrl+a	Move cursor to the start of the line
ctrl+e	Move cursor to the end of the line
ctrl+b	Move cursor back one character
ctrl+f	Move cursor forward one character
ctrl+x	Toggle between first and cursor position

Mac

command	description
delete	Delete one character to the left.
fn+delete	Delete one character to the right.
option+up	Scroll to the previous item in history (Input prompt only, when history is enabled).
option+down	Scroll to the next item in history (Input prompt only, when history is enabled).

Windows

command	description
backspace	Delete one character to the left.
delete	Delete one character to the right (forward).
alt+up	Scroll to the previous item in history (Input prompt only, when history is enabled).
alt+down	Scroll to the next item in history (Input prompt only, when history is enabled).

Select choices

These key combinations may be used on prompts that support multiple choices, such as the multiselect prompt, or the select prompt when the multiple options is true.

command	description
space	Toggle the currently selected choice when options.multiple is true.
number	Move the pointer to the choice at the given index. Also toggles the selected choice when options.multiple is true.
a	Toggle all choices to be enabled or disabled.
i	Invert the current selection of choices.
g	Toggle the current choice group.

Hide/show choices

command	description
fn+up	Decrease the number of visible choices by one.
fn+down	Increase the number of visible choices by one.

Move/lock Pointer

command	description
number	Move the pointer to the choice at the given index. Also toggles the selected choice when options.multiple is true.
up	Move the pointer up.
down	Move the pointer down.
ctrl+a	Move the pointer to the first visible choice.
ctrl+e	Move the pointer to the last visible choice.
shift+up	Scroll up one choice without changing pointer position (locks the pointer while scrolling).
shift+down	Scroll down one choice without changing pointer position (locks the pointer while scrolling).

Mac

command	description
fn+left	Move the pointer to the first choice in the choices array.
fn+right	Move the pointer to the last choice in the choices array.

Windows

command	description
home	Move the pointer to the first choice in the choices array.
end	Move the pointer to the last choice in the choices array.

❯ Release History

Please see CHANGELOG.md.

❯ Performance

MacBook Pro, Intel Core i7, 2.5 GHz, 16 GB.

Load time

Time it takes for the module to load the first time (average of 3 runs):

enquirer: 4.013ms
inquirer: 286.717ms

❯ About

Contributing

Pull requests and stars are always welcome. For bugs and feature requests, please create an issue.

Running Tests

Running and reviewing unit tests is a great way to get familiarized with a library and its API. You can install dependencies and run tests with the following command:

$ npm install && npm test

Building docs

(This project's readme.md is generated by verb, please don't edit the readme directly. Any changes to the readme must be made in the .verb.md readme template.)

To generate the readme, run the following command:

$ npm install -g verbose/verb#dev verb-generate-readme && verb

Contributors

Commits	Contributor
271	jonschlinkert
25	doowb
15	g-plane
12	pixelass
3	tunnckoCore
2	DanielRuf
1	gabel0287
1	ImgBotApp
1	jsonkao
1	knpwrs
1	yeskunall
1	mischah
1	renarsvilnis
1	sbugert
1	skellock
1	whxaxes

Author

Jon Schlinkert

• GitHub Profile
• Twitter Profile
• LinkedIn Profile

Credit

Thanks to derhuerst, creator of prompt libraries such as prompt-skeleton, which influenced some of the concepts we used in our prompts.

License

Copyright © 2018-present, Jon Schlinkert. Released under the MIT License.