r-btw-cli

name	r-btw-cli
description	Use the `btw` CLI to access R documentation, manage R package development, query CRAN, and inspect the R environment from the command line. Use when you need to: (1) read R help pages or vignettes, (2) run R CMD check, tests, or devtools::document(), (3) search CRAN for packages, (4) check installed package versions or R platform info.

btw CLI

btw is a command-line interface for accessing R documentation, package development, CRAN search, and R environment info.

When to use which command

• Use btw check-installed to quickly verify whether a package is installed.
• Use btw docs to read documentation for a locally-installed package.
• Use btw cran only to search for packages or retrieve basic CRAN metadata (version, description, dependencies); do not use it as a substitute for btw docs when the package is available locally.

Commands

Use btw docs to read R help pages, vignettes, and package NEWS for locally installed packages.

btw docs topics <pkg> [--only help|vignettes] [--json]  List help topics and vignettes for a package
btw docs help <topic> [-p <pkg>]                        Read an R help page
btw docs help <pkg>::<topic>                            Read a specific help page (scoped)
btw docs vignette <pkg> [-n <name>]                     Read a vignette (--list to list available)
btw docs news <pkg> [-s <term>]                         Read package NEWS/changelog

Use btw pkg to run development tasks on an R package under active development.

btw pkg document [--path <dir>]            Generate roxygen2 docs
btw pkg check [--path <dir>]               Run R CMD check
btw pkg test [-f <filter>] [--path <dir>]  Run testthat tests
btw pkg load [--path <dir>]                Load package with pkgload
btw pkg coverage [--file <f>] [--json]     Compute test coverage

Use these commands to inspect the current R installation and installed packages. Use btw check-installed to verify whether a specific package is installed before deciding whether to use btw docs or btw cran.

btw system-info [--json]                             R version, OS, locale
btw check-installed <pkg>... [--fail] [--json]       Check if packages are installed
btw installed-packages <pkg>... [--deps <types>] [--json]  Installed package details

Use btw cran to search CRAN for packages or retrieve basic metadata (version, description, dependencies) for a package. Prefer btw docs over btw cran for reading documentation when the package is installed locally.

btw cran search <query> [-n <count>] [--json]  Search CRAN for packages
btw cran info <pkg> [--json]                   CRAN package details

Run btw --help, btw <group> --help, or btw <group> <cmd> --help for full usage details, including the field names and types returned by --json flags.