design-cli-output

name	design-cli-output
locale	caveman-lite
source_locale	en
source_commit	2630b6e9
translator	Julius Brussee homage — caveman
translation_date	2026-07-30
description	Design terminal output for a CLI tool with chalk colors, Unicode glyphs, multiple verbosity levels (human, verbose, quiet, JSON), and consistent voice rules. Covers color palette selection, status indicator design, reporter function architecture, ceremony/narrative output variants, and cross-terminal compatibility. Use when building a new CLI reporter module, adding warm narrative output to an existing tool, standardizing output across multiple commands, or designing machine-readable JSON alongside human-readable text.
license	MIT
allowed-tools	Read Write Edit Bash Grep Glob
metadata	{"author":"Philipp Thoss","version":"1.0","domain":"cli","complexity":"basic","language":"TypeScript","tags":["cli","terminal","ux","chalk","unicode"]}

Design CLI Output

Design consistent, multi-level terminal output for a command-line tool.

When to Use

• Building a new reporter module for a CLI tool
• Adding warm or narrative output alongside standard transactional output
• Standardizing output format across multiple commands
• Designing JSON machine output parallel to human-readable output
• Choosing colors, glyphs, and verbosity levels for a new terminal tool

Inputs

• Required: CLI tool name and primary audience (developers, operators, end users)
• Required: Commands that need output formatting
• Optional: Whether a "ceremony" or narrative output variant is desired
• Optional: Branding constraints (color palette, tone)

Procedure

Step 1: Define the Color Palette

Use chalk to create a named palette object.

Load chalk behind a no-color fallback. The fallback has to stand in for every call shape the palette uses, which is more than passing strings through:

// A factory returns a *function*; a direct style returns a string. Enumerate
// this list against the installed chalk, not from memory — chalk 6 added the
// three underline* variants, and a list that omits them is wrong for those names.
const FACTORIES = new Set(['ansi256', 'bgAnsi256', 'bgHex', 'bgRgb', 'hex',
  'rgb', 'underlineAnsi256', 'underlineHex', 'underlineRgb']);

function makeChalkStub() {
  return new Proxy((text) => text, {
    get(target, prop) {
       (prop === )  ;   
       (prop === )  ;          
       ( prop === )  .(target, prop);
       .(prop) ?  () : ();
    },
  });
}

 chalk;
 { chalk = ( ()).; }
 { chalk = (); }