cli-ux-polish✓ Pass

SKILL.md Content

---
name: cli-ux-polish
description: Polish CLI user experience with @clack/prompts for interactive flows, update-notifier for version awareness, and enhanced Commander.js help text with examples and colors. Generic patterns for any Node.js CLI.
---

# CLI UX Polish

## Goal

Improve the interactive experience with polished prompts, update notifications, and better help text.

## 1. Interactive Prompts with @clack/prompts

### Install

```bash
pnpm add @clack/prompts
```

### Confirmation Flow

```ts
import * as p from '@clack/prompts'

async function promptConfirmation(message: string): Promise<boolean> {
  const result = await p.confirm({ message })

  if (p.isCancel(result)) {
    p.cancel('Operation cancelled.')
    process.exit(130)
  }

  return result
}
```

### Selection Flow

```ts
async function promptSelect<T extends string>(
  message: string,
  options: Array<{ value: T; label: string }>,
): Promise<T> {
  const result = await p.select({ message, options })

  if (p.isCancel(result)) {
    p.cancel('Operation cancelled.')
    process.exit(130)
  }

  return result as T
}
```

### Spinner

```ts
const s = p.spinner()
s.start('Processing...')
await doWork()
s.stop('Done')
```

### Important

- Only use @clack/prompts when `process.stdout.isTTY` is true (interactive terminal)
- In non-TTY / CI modes, skip prompts and auto-approve or fail with a clear message
- Always handle `p.isCancel()` — it returns a symbol when user presses Ctrl+C

## 2. Update Notifications

### Install

```bash
pnpm add update-notifier
```

### Usage

Add to the CLI entry point (before command parsing):

```ts
import updateNotifier from 'update-notifier'

const pkg = { name: 'your-package-name', version: currentVersion }
updateNotifier({ pkg }).notify()
```

This:

- Checks npm registry in the background (non-blocking)
- Caches the result for 24h
- Shows notification only when a new version exists
- Automatically respects `NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1` and CI environments

## 3. Enhanced Help Text

### Add Examples to Commands

```ts
program
  .command('apply')
  .description('Apply changes')
  .addHelpText(
    'after',
    `
Examples:
  $ mycli apply --env staging
  $ mycli apply --env production --approve
  $ mycli apply --env dev --json`,
  )
```

### Global Help Epilog

```ts
program.addHelpText(
  'after',
  `
Documentation: https://github.com/YOUR_ORG/YOUR_REPO
Report bugs:   https://github.com/YOUR_ORG/YOUR_REPO/issues`,
)
```

### Colored Help (Optional)

```ts
import pc from 'picocolors'

program.configureHelp({
  formatHelp: (cmd, helper) => {
    const defaultHelp = helper.formatHelp(cmd, helper)
    if (process.stdout.isTTY) {
      return defaultHelp
        .replace(/^Usage:/m, pc.bold('Usage:'))
        .replace(/^Commands:/m, pc.bold('Commands:'))
        .replace(/^Options:/m, pc.bold('Options:'))
    }
    return defaultHelp
  },
})
```

License

Declared license: MIT

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 krafteq

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

View the license in the source repository — the version published there is authoritative.