Help message

Four standalone functions, plus the two methods attached to the CLI and its subcommands. They all take the same PrintHelpOptions.

Functions

generateCliHelpMessage

(cliDefinition: Cli, options?: PrintHelpOptions) => string

generateSubcommandHelpMessage

(commandDefinition: Subcommand, options?: PrintHelpOptions, cliName?: string) => string

The usage line uses cliName. Pass it so the message reads listy add-items ... instead of just add-items ....

printCliHelp

(cliDefinition: Cli, options?: PrintHelpOptions) => void

printSubcommandHelp

(commandDefinition: Subcommand, options?: PrintHelpOptions, cliName?: string) => void

The print pair writes to the console. The generate pair returns the string.

Inside a handler, prefer the attached methods, which already know the CLI name. See Cli.

PrintHelpOptions

Option	Type	Default	Description
`style`	`HelpMessageStyle`	`helpMessageStyles.default`	Colors for each part of the message.
`kebabCaseArgumentName`	`boolean`	`true`	Show argument names in kebab-case. Does not affect options.
`markdownRenderer`	`"terminal" \| "html"`	`"terminal"`	How `descriptionMarkdown` is rendered.
`indentBeforeName`	`number`	`2`	Spaces before an option, argument, or command name.
`indentAfterName`	`number`	`4`	Spaces between the name column and the description column.
`indentBeforePlaceholder`	`number`	`1`	Spaces before the placeholder.
`newLineIndent`	`number`	`0`	Indent for wrapped description lines and examples.
`emptyLines`	`number`	`0`	Empty lines between entries.
`emptyLinesBeforeTitle`	`number`	`1`	Empty lines before a section title.
`emptyLinesAfterTitle`	`number`	`0`	Empty lines after a section title.
`exampleKeyword`	`string`	`"Example:"`	Label before an example.
`optionalKeyword`	`string`	`"(optional)"`	Marker for optional entries.
`defaultKeyword`	`string`	`"(default: {{ value }})"`	Marker for defaults. `{{ value }}` is replaced.
`usageTitle`	`string`	`"USAGE"`	Section title.
`descriptionTitle`	`string`	`"DESCRIPTION"`	Section title.
`commandsTitle`	`string`	`"COMMANDS"`	Section title.
`optionsTitle`	`string`	`"OPTIONS"`	Section title.
`argumentsTitle`	`string`	`"ARGUMENTS"`	Section title.
`exampleTitle`	`string`	`"EXAMPLE"`	Section title.

helpMessageStyles

Ready-made styles: default, dracula, nord, solarizedDark, gruvboxDark, monokai, oneDark, catppuccin, noColors, and html.

import { helpMessageStyles } from "@staticbolt/args-parser";

cli.generateCliHelpMessage({ style: helpMessageStyles.nord });

HelpMessageStyle

new HelpMessageStyle(style, baseStyle?)

Each part is a function that takes text and returns styled text, which is exactly the shape of a chalk color. Anything you leave out falls back to baseStyle, or to plain text when there is no base.

Part	Applies to
`title`	Section titles.
`description`	Descriptions.
`default`	The default marker.
`optional`	The optional marker.
`exampleTitle`	The example label.
`example`	Example text.
`command`	Subcommand names.
`option`	Option flags.
`argument`	Argument names.
`placeholder`	Placeholders.
`punctuation`	Brackets, commas, and the like.

import { HelpMessageStyle, helpMessageStyles } from "@staticbolt/args-parser";
import chalk from "chalk";

const myStyle = new HelpMessageStyle({ title: chalk.bold.magenta }, helpMessageStyles.default);

See Help messages for the HTML output and other usage.