Node CLI Template

A GitHub template repo for node cli tools

About This Template

This template is designed for creating Node.js CLI tools.

When to use this template:

• Building command-line tools and automation helpers
• Creating npm packages with a bin entrypoint
• Developing interactive terminal workflows

Related templates:

• node-module-template - For reusable npm libraries and utilities
• node-app-template - For web servers, REST APIs, and long-running services

For detailed coding guidelines and GitHub Copilot instructions, see .github/copilot-instructions.md

Install

Globally

npm install -g @voxpelli/node-cli-template

Locally

npm install -D @voxpelli/node-cli-template

Testing

This template uses two complementary test layers:

• Runtime tests in test/*.spec.js using node:test and node:assert/strict
• Type-level tests in typetests/*.tst.ts using tstyche
• Public exports and CLI-facing contracts are validated through type-level tests.

Useful commands:

• npm test – full verification flow
• npm run test:node – runtime tests with c8 coverage
• npm run check-type-tests – type-level contract tests

Git Hooks

Husky is opt-in in this template.

• npm run husky-enable – enable git hooks
• npm run husky-disable – disable git hooks

Lockfile Policy

This CLI template does not commit a lockfile by default (package-lock=false in .npmrc).

Usage

node-cli-template --help

Used by

• example – used by this one to do X and Y

Similar modules

• example – is similar in this way

See also

• Announcement blog post
• Announcement tweet