questionnaire-cli

name	questionnaire-cli
description	How to drive the questionnaire data access layer from the shell via the `apps/console` CLI. Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, list, inspect, update, soft-delete questionnaires, view aggregated results, or submit/list answers from a terminal.

questionnaire CLI

apps/console is a thin JSON-in / JSON-out wrapper around @questionnaires/lib. All business logic lives in the lib; the CLI only parses argv, reads/writes JSON, and maps errors to exit codes.

See docs/console-cli.md for design notes (thin-wrapper invariant, output contract, how to add a command).

Invocation

From the repo root:

pnpm console <group> <subcommand> [flags]

pnpm 10 forwards trailing args verbatim, so no -- separator is needed. Inside apps/console, you can also run pnpm start <args>.

Discovering commands and flags

Commander generates --help (-h) for every level — use it as the live reference instead of guessing flags:

pnpm console --help                  # top-level groups
pnpm console questionnaire --help    # subcommands of a group
pnpm console db sample -h            # leaf-command flags

Global flag

--db <url> — optional. Resolution order: this flag → $DATABASE_URL env → <invoking-cwd>/questionnaire.db (anchored to $INIT_CWD when run via pnpm/npm scripts, otherwise process.cwd()). The DB is created and migrated automatically on first use.

Commands

All commands write a single JSON document to stdout on success (exit 0). On failure, an error envelope goes to stderr with a non-zero exit (see "Error shape" below).

questionnaire create

Reads CreateQuestionnaireInput JSON from --file <path> or piped stdin.

pnpm console questionnaire create --file ./create.json
# or
cat create.json | pnpm console questionnaire create

Input shape:

{
  "title": "Customer Feedback Q2",
  "questions": [
    { "type": "text",    "prompt": "What did you like?",  "required": true  },
    { "type": "boolean", "prompt": "Recommend us?",       "required": true  },
    { "type": "likert",  "prompt": "Satisfaction?",       "required": true,
      "likertMax": 4, "lowLabel": "Not at all"   
  

Output: { "id": number, "version": 1, "versionId": number }.

questionnaire get --id <n> [--version <n>] [--include-deleted]

Returns the full Questionnaire (metadata + parsed questions). Without --version, returns the current version.

pnpm console questionnaire get --id 1
pnpm console questionnaire get --id 1 --version 1

questionnaire list [--include-deleted]

Returns a QuestionnaireSummary[]. Soft-deleted rows are hidden unless --include-deleted is set.

questionnaire result --id <n> [--version <n>]

Returns the aggregated QuestionnaireVersionResults JSON from the lib: metadata, submission count, and per-question results. Without --version, the command uses the questionnaire's current version, matching the web results page.

pnpm console questionnaire result --id 1
pnpm console questionnaire result --id 1 --version 1

questionnaire update --id <n>

Reads UpdateQuestionnaireInput JSON from --file or stdin. Creates a new version that fully replaces the question list.

Output: { "id": number, "version": number, "versionId": number }.

questionnaire delete --id <n>

Soft delete. Output: { "id": number, "deleted": true }.

submission submit

Reads SubmitAnswersInput JSON from --file or stdin.

{
  "questionnaireId": 1,
  "version": 2,
  "answers": [
    { "qid": "q1", "type": "text",    "value": "Great support" },
    { "qid": "q2", "type": "boolean", "value": true },
    { "qid": "q3", "type": "likert",  "value": 4 }
  ]
}

qids are assigned positionally by the lib (q1, q2, …) and are per-version — fetch the version's questions first if you don't already know them.

Output: { "submissionId": number }.

submission list --questionnaire-id <n>

Returns Submission[] across all versions, each tagged with its versionNumber and parsed answers.

db migrate

Apply pending migrations against the resolved DB without doing any other work. Output: { "migrated": true, "db": "<resolved-url>" }.

Useful for provisioning a DB in CI before running real commands.

db sample [--seed <n>]

Fill the resolved DB with three realistic questionnaires (one has two versions) plus 15–20 submissions each. Text answers come from faker; booleans/likerts from a seeded RNG. The command is additive — it does not wipe existing rows; point --db at a fresh file for a clean slate.

--seed <n> is optional. When omitted, a random integer is generated and echoed in the output so the run is replayable.

pnpm console db sample --db /tmp/q.db --seed 42 | jq .

Output shape:

{
  "seeded": true,
  "seed": 42,
  "questionnaires": [
    { "id": 1, "title": "Customer Feedback Q2",        "versions": [1, 2], "submissions": 18 },
    { "id": 2, "title": "Developer Onboarding Survey", "versions": [1],    "submissions": 19 },
    { "id": 3,          
  

The generator itself lives in @questionnaires/lib (seedSampleData); the CLI handler is pure plumbing per the thin-wrapper invariant.

mcp [--db <url>]

Run a STDIO Model Context Protocol server backed by the same library functions as the CLI commands.

pnpm console mcp --db /tmp/q.db

Exposed tools:

• questionnaire_list
• questionnaire_get
• questionnaire_result
• submission_submit

Before calling submission_submit, an AI client must call questionnaire_get to retrieve the target questionnaire version and its questions. The submission must use the returned qids, match each question's type, answer required questions, and keep likert values inside the question's range; otherwise the server rejects it via lib validation. The MCP schema for answers uses anyOf for the text, boolean, and likert answer shapes.

Error shape

Errors are emitted as JSON on stderr. Branch on error.type:

{
  "error": {
    "type": "NotFoundError" | "ValidationError" | "InputError" | "UnknownError",
    "message": "...",
    "issues": [{ "code": "missing_required_answer", "qid": "q3", "message": "..." }]
  }
}

Exit codes:

Type	Exit
NotFoundError	1
ValidationError	1
InputError	2
UnknownError	3

ValidationError.issues[].code values come from the lib and include: questionnaire_deleted, version_not_found, missing_required_answer, unknown_qid, duplicate_answer, wrong_answer_type, likert_out_of_range, invalid_input.

jq recipes

Capture the new id from a create:

ID=$(pnpm console questionnaire create --file create.json | jq -r .id)

Count submissions per version:

pnpm console submission list --questionnaire-id $ID \
  | jq 'group_by(.versionNumber) | map({version: .[0].versionNumber, count: length})'

Show the current version's aggregated results:

pnpm console questionnaire result --id $ID | jq .

Inspect issues from a failed submit (stderr → JSON):

pnpm console submission submit --file bad.json 2>err.json
jq '.error.issues' err.json

When not to use this CLI

• Inside apps/web: use the lib directly via Server Components / Server Actions. The CLI is for shells, not server runtime.
• Inside packages/lib itself or its tests: import the repository functions directly.