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Templates

There are two templates that oclif generate can use:

Both templates come with the same boiler plate (tsconfig, bin scripts, example commands and tests, etc.). The only difference is that the hello-world template uses CommonJS whereas the hello-world-esm template uses ESM.

We'll give you a brief rundown of everything that's included in the templates:

Bin Scripts​

The templates contains 4 bin scripts that are used for either production or development.

  • bin/run.js - Run the CLI in production (macos and linux)
  • bin/dev.js - Run the CLI in development (macos and linux)
  • bin/run.cmd - Run the CLI in production (windows)
  • bin/dev.cmd - Run the CLI in development (windows)

The bin entry in your package.json will point to the bin/run.js file - this tells npm to use that file when installing the CLI. If you create os-specific installers using oclif pack, then the appropriate run script will be added to the final installer based on the target operating system.

We encourage you to use the dev scripts for your local development. Doing so will oclif to auto-transpile your typescript at runtime so you don't have to worry about compiling your code before every command execution. The dev scripts will also produce more verbose warnings and errors to make it easier to figure out what went wrong.

The dev.js that comes with the templates uses ts-node as the node runtime. You, however, have options here. You can use any of the following

  • tsx
  • bun
  • node - if you use node and ESM, please ensure that you're using a loader that will allow it to use ESM modules (e.g. --loader ts-node/esm). See ESM for more.

For any of these you can point the hashbang in the file to a global install (e.g. ts-node) or to a locally installed one (node_modules/.bin/ts-node).

Configuration​

The template also comes with several configuration files that can be easily modified (or removed) to suit your needs.

  • .eslintrc.json - Our recommended plugins and settings for eslint
  • .eslintignore - Our recommended .eslintignore to go with our recommend eslint configuration.
  • .mocharc.json - Our recommended settings for mocha
  • .prettierrc.json - Our recommended prettier settings - uses @oclif/prettier-config as the base.
  • tsconfig.json - Our recommended compiler options for typescript projects.
  • package.json - Our recommended scripts, dependencies, and oclif settings.

Example Commands​

The templates come with two commands that you can build off of.

  • hello - src/commands/hello/index.ts
  • hello world - src/commands/hello/world.ts

Example Tests​

Lastly, there are test files for each of those commands under the tests folder.

These tests use @oclif/test and mocha. You are, however, free to setup your tests with any testing utilities that best suit your needs.