Clikt (pronounced "clicked") is a multiplatform Kotlin library that makes writing command line interfaces simple and intuitive. It's the "Command Line Interface for Kotlin".
It is designed to make the process of writing command line tools effortless while supporting a wide variety of use cases and allowing advanced customization when needed.
Clikt has:
- arbitrary nesting of commands
- composable, type safe parameter values
- support for a wide variety of command line interface styles
- multiplatform packages for JVM, NodeJS, and native Linux, Windows and MacOS
What does it look like? Here's a complete example of a simple Clikt program:
class Hello : CliktCommand() {
val count: Int by option(help="Number of greetings").int().default(1)
val name: String by option(help="The person to greet").prompt("Your name")
override fun run() {
repeat(count) {
echo("Hello $name!")
}
}
}
fun main(args: Array<String>) = Hello().main(args)
And here's what it looks like when run:
$ ./hello --count=3
Your name: John
Hello John!
Hello John!
Hello John!
The help page is generated for you:
$ ./hello --help
Usage: hello [OPTIONS]
Options:
--count INT Number of greetings
--name TEXT The person to greet
-h, --help Show this message and exit
Errors are also taken care of:
$ ./hello --whoops
Usage: hello [OPTIONS]
Error: no such option: "--whoops".
The full documentation can be found on the website.
There are also a number of sample applications. You can run
them with the included runsample
script.
Clikt is distributed through Maven Central.
dependencies {
implementation("com.github.ajalt.clikt:clikt:3.2.0")
}
In version 3.0, the maven coordinates changed. Make sure you're using the new coordinates if you're updating from an older version.
Clikt supports the following targets: jvm
, mingwX64
, linuxX64
, macosX64
, and js
(for both
NodeJS and Browsers). See the docs for more
information about functionality supported on each target. You'll need to use Gradle 6 or newer.
Snapshot builds are also available
You'll need to add the Sonatype snapshots repository:
repositories {
maven {
url = uri("https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/")
}
}
Copyright 2018-2021 AJ Alt
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.