Features

Commands

• Define commands as methods and/or classes (docs)

  • supports the pattern you prefer:
    • class per command
    • logically grouped commands as methods

      similar to ASP.NET endpoints

• Parameter Resolvers (docs)

  Inject console and other services as parameter to the command methods: IConsole, CommandContext, CancellationToken & IPrompter by default.

• Infinite nesting of subcommands (docs)

  • Nested classes
  • Composed classes

    reuse subcommands in multiple parents

  • Commands define arguments for their subcommands

• Command Interception

  • via interceptor methods (aka hooks) (docs)

    allows logic before and after a command or subcommands run

  • via middleware (docs)

• Method Interception

  CommandContext.InvocationPipeline to access method and params

Data Types

docs

• Primitives, Enums, Nullable<T> & Nullable Reference Types

• Lists, Arrays and IEnumberable<T> for streaming

• Password: mask value in logs and output with ***** (docs)

• Any type with a

  • string constructor
  • static Parse(string) method
  • TypeConverter

• Custom Type Descriptors

  Customize parsing and the type name shown in help and

• Define allowed values by type

  Allowed values are shown in help and typo suggestions

Help

• Typo suggestions (docs)

• Auto generated help (docs)

  Aliases: -? -h --help

• Custom help generators (docs)

Dependency Injection

docs

• MicrosoftDependencyInjection
• Autofac
• SimpleInjector
• Test resolver (docs)
• Custom

Localization

docs

• supports IStringLocalizer

• resx translation files available

  currently english only. PRs accepted

• json translation files available

  currently english only. PRs accepted

• [culture] directive (docs)

  set the culture for a command for manual verification

• Test support (docs)

Extensibility

• Custom middleware (docs)
• Custom directives (docs)
• Custom token transformations (docs)
• Custom parameter resolvers (docs)

Other

• Ctrl+C (docs)

• Name casing (docs)

  consistent name casing via Humanizer

• Spectre AnsiConsole (docs)

  ansi, colors, markup syntax, prompting, progress bars, tables. live displays, test capture, and much more

Arguments

docs

• Positional (operands)

• Named (options)

  • Short and long names
  • Flags
  • bundling aka clubbing

• Define arguments as parameters in methods

• Define arguments as properties in POCOs

  • POCOs can be nested for easier reuse of infrastructural arguments, i.e. dryrun, verbosity, etc.

• Option prefixes

  • Posix (default): - for short names and -- for long names
  • Windows (optional): / for both short and long names
  • Powershell (optional): - for long names

• Argument separator --

  • as "end of options" indicator (docs)
  • or for pass-thru arguments (docs)
  • configure globally and per command

• Capture unexpected arguments or throw exception (docs)

  • configure globally and per command

Argument Values

• Response Files (docs)

• Piped Input with streaming (docs)

  • user can pipe to specific arguments

• Negative numbers and other values starting with -

  Most frameworks treat these as options. We've got you covered.

• split multi-value options by char (docs)

  • configure char globally and per option

• Prompts (docs)

  • Hide passwords
  • Multi-entry for collections
  • Auto prompt for missing arguments (optional)
  • Spectre AnsiConsole integration for alternate prompting experience

• Default from EnvVar (docs)

  values show as defaults in command help

• Default from AppSetting (docs)

  • using [AppSetting] attribute
  • using naming conventions

    use command and arguments names as keys. eg. "--verbose": "true"

  • using IArgumentModel as configuration object

Validation

• Arity based on property and parameter definitions (docs)
• DataAnnotations (docs)
• FluentValidation (docs)

Testing

• BDD Framework (docs)

  Test an app as if run from the console

• Supports parallel test

  the whole framework avoids static state to support parallel test runs

• Test prompts (docs)

• IConsole and SystemConsole covering most members of System.Console (docs)

  • TestConsole to capture output and mock piped and user input
  • Intercept Console.Out and Console.Error
  • Spectre AnsiConsole support also with AnsiTestConsole

• IEnvironment and SystemEnvironment covering most members of System.Environment

  • TestEnvironment and .UseTestEnv extension for tests

• TestDependencyResolver (docs)

  new TestDependencyResolver{ dbSvc, httpSvc }

• TempFiles helper (docs)

  create and cleanup files used for tests

• Capture State (docs)

  Capture state within a run to help test custom middleware components

Diagnostics

• App Version (docs)

  -v or --version

• [debug] directive (docs)

  step into debugger

• [time] directive (docs)

  outputs the execution time of a command

• [parse] directive (docs)

  • show final values
  • show inputs and source

    original source of value, including > response file paths

  • show defaults and source

    including key if from EnvVar or AppSetting

• Command logging (docs)

  show parse output and optionally system info and app config

• Custom error handling (docs)