# sindresorhus/meow

🐈 CLI app helper

Repository: https://github.com/sindresorhus/meow
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/meow
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: javascript, meow, cli, command-line, nodejs, kitten
Last push: 2026-07-21T18:40:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 78/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 93, release rhythm 47, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4343, "days_push": 43, "days_rel": 194, "gap_med": 157, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3712, forks 154 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:15.213972+00:00)

## What it is
meow is a Node.js library that helps build command-line applications by parsing arguments and flags, and generating help and version output. It converts flags to camelCase, supports --no- negation, and requires no dependencies.

## Use cases
- parse command-line arguments in a node cli app
- add --help and --version flags to a cli tool
- convert cli flags to camelCase
- build a user-friendly command-line utility in javascript
- define typed flags and required inputs for a cli
- handle subcommands in a nodejs cli

## When to choose
- you are building a small-to-medium Node.js CLI app and want zero-dependency argument parsing with built-in help/version handling

## When to avoid
- you need advanced features like auto-generated shell completions, complex subcommand trees, or rich interactive prompts
- you are not building a Node.js command-line application

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: cli, parser, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: argument-parsing, flags, help-text, cli-helper, command-line, nodejs

## Member repositories
- sindresorhus/meow (main) score 78

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:15.213972+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 2026-08-29T18:30:54.377327+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/sindresorhus/meow (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:15.213972+00:00, sha 63daf7fbd7cb)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/meow (fetched 2026-08-29T09:24:34.164643+00:00, sha 657eb7ea4418)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.