# mattallty/Caporal.js

A full-featured framework for building command line applications (cli) with node.js

Repository: https://github.com/mattallty/Caporal.js
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/caporaljs
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: cli, cli-app, nodejs, node, node-js, command-line-parser, command-line, argument-parser, terminal, argument-parsing, argv-parser, argv, caporal, winston, typos-suggestions, autocomplete, bash, zsh, shell-script
Last push: 2024-01-03T21:58:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3493, "days_push": 973, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3450, forks 94 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:05.276141+00:00)

## What it is
Caporal.js is a full-featured Node.js framework for building command line applications. It provides argument parsing, help generation, colored output, verbosity control, typo suggestions, and bash/zsh/fish auto-completion.

## Use cases
- build a cli tool with node.js
- parse command line arguments and options
- generate help text for a cli app
- add bash zsh autocomplete to a command line program
- suggest corrections for typos in cli commands
- build multi-command cli applications

## When to choose
- you are building a command line application in Node.js and want batteries included
- you need built-in help generation, validation, and shell auto-completion
- you want a higher-level alternative to raw argv parsing libraries

## When to avoid
- you are not using Node.js
- you need a minimal zero-dependency argument parser
- you need a framework under active heavy development

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: maintenance
- function: cli, web-framework, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, backend
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: argument-parsing, autocomplete, command-line-parser, help-generation, shell-completion, command-line, nodejs

## Member repositories
- mattallty/Caporal.js (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:05.276141+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:37:35.227823+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mattallty/Caporal.js (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:05.276141+00:00, sha da8fe2381f6b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.