Help and version

The generated help screens, where their text comes from, and how --help and --version behave.

zodline generates both help screens from what you already declared: meta, command descriptions, schema keys and .describe() text. There is nothing to keep in sync by hand.

Meta

meta supplies the CLI’s own identity:

export const config = defineConfig({
  meta: {
    name: 'my-cli',
    version: '1.0.0',
    description: 'A simple example CLI',
  },
  commands: { greet, copy },
});

The command list

my-cli --help, or running the CLI with no command and no defaultCommand:

A simple example CLI (my-cli v1.0.0)

USAGE my-cli greet|copy

COMMANDS

  greet    Greet someone
  copy     Copy a file to another location

Use my-cli <command> --help for more information about a command.

Commands appear in the order they are declared in commands, each with its description.

Per-command help

my-cli greet --help:

Greet someone (my-cli greet v1.0.0)

USAGE my-cli greet [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS

  --name, -n    Name to greet
  --loud, -l    Use uppercase (default: false)

Each line is built from the schema:

• the long form is the schema key in kebab-case
• the short form comes from the alias map
• the description is the option’s .describe() text
• (default: …) is read off .default(), including through an .optional() wrapper

[OPTIONS] appears only when the command declares options; [ARGS] only when it declares an args schema.

Version

my-cli --version
# 1.0.0

--version is only handled when no command name was given and meta.version is set. my-cli greet --version is treated as a flag on greet, not as a version request.

Behaviour

What is not built in

• -h and -v are not registered. They are rejected as unknown options unless you map them yourself with an alias.
• help as a subcommand (my-cli help greet) does not exist. Add it to commands if you want it.
• Colors are always emitted as ANSI escape codes; there is no flag to disable them.