CLI & TUI Frameworks

Most JS devs end up writing a CLI eventually — for project setup, codegen, deploy scripts, or internal tools.

Argument parsing / command structure

• ★ citty (UnJS) — modern, ESM-first, zero-config commands. The default for new tools.
• ★ Commander — long-running standard; feature-rich, mature.
• yargs — also long-running; declarative builder API.
• cac — small, fast, ergonomic.
• meow (Sindre Sorhus) — minimal; pair with your own logic.
• @effect/cli — if you're in the Effect ecosystem.
• gunshi — newer, type-safe.

Full CLI frameworks (multi-command, plugins, hooks)

• ★ oclif — Salesforce's framework; plugins, hooks, codegen, autocomplete; used by Heroku, Salesforce, Shopify CLIs.
• Stricli — newer, type-safe.

Interactive prompts

• ★ Clack (@clack/prompts) — gorgeous prompts with great defaults. The default for new CLIs in 2026.
• prompts — long-running classic; lighter.
• inquirer — older, larger.
• enquirer — alternative; smaller than inquirer.
• password-prompt — minimal masked-input prompt.

Output / formatting

• ★ picocolors — smallest, fastest color library; the modern default.
• chalk — older, larger, still very popular.
• kleur — small alternative.
• ansi-colors, colorette — alternatives.
• figures — Unicode symbols (✔, ✖, ◯) cross-platform.
• gradient-string — ANSI gradients.
• boxen — boxed output.
• listr2 — parallel task lists with checkboxes.
• ora — spinners.
• log-symbols — pretty symbols for log levels.
• cli-table3, easy-table, table — terminal tables.

TUIs (full-screen terminal UIs)

• ★ Ink (Vercel) — React for the terminal. Used by Vercel CLI, Cloudflare Wrangler, Gemini CLI, Codex, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI.
• Pastel — Next.js-style framework on top of Ink; file-based commands.
• @inkjs/ui — pre-built Ink components (text input, multi-select, spinners).
• terminal-kit — non-React TUI toolkit.
• blessed / neo-blessed — older, lower-level.

Distribution / packaging

• @electron/forge / pkg — bundle to single executables.
• Bun's bun build --compile — single-file Bun executables.
• Deno's deno compile — single-file Deno executables.
• caxa — bundle Node + your script as a binary.

CLI templates / scaffolds

• ★ plop — file generator from templates; the default for "scaffold a new component."
• Hygen — alternative.
• giget (UnJS) — fetch templates from GitHub / GitLab.
• @antfu/ni — universal package-manager runner (works regardless of npm / pnpm / yarn / bun).

Pick this if…

• Default new CLI: citty + Clack + picocolors.
• Multi-command framework: oclif (mature) or citty (modern).
• Interactive TUI like Wrangler: Ink + Pastel.
• Pretty prompts: Clack.
• Cross-package-manager script runner: @antfu/ni.
• Single-binary distribution: Bun's compile or Deno's compile.