Running Instacli files.md

Running Instacli files

You run an Instacli file or directory with the cli command.

Global options

When running cli or cli --help, the global options will be printed

cli

Instacli -- Instantly create CLI applications with light scripting!

Usage:
   cli [global options] file | directory [command options]

Global options:
  --help, -h          Print help on a script or directory and does not run anything
  --output, -o        Print the output at the end of the script in Yaml format
  --output-json, -j   Print the output at the end of the script in Json format
  --non-interactive, -q   Indicate that Instacli should not prompt for user input
  --debug, -d         Run in debug mode. Prints stacktraces when an error occurs.

For more information on the options, see Command line options

Running a single file

In the samples directory, there is a file hello.cli that contains a simple " Hello World" command:

Print: Hello from Instacli!

After installing Instacli, run it with the following command

cli hello.cli

And you will see this output:

Hello from Instacli!

You can omit the .cli extension to make it look more like a "cli command":

cli hello

Hello from Instacli!

Running a directory

In the samples directory, there is a subdirectory basic with more Instacli scripts.

Running Instacli on a directory will pop up a command chooser.

cli basic

Simple Instacli example scripts

* Available commands: 
 > create-greeting   Creates a greeting and puts it in the output
   greet             Prints a greeting
   multiple-choice   Interaction example
   output            Sets test output
   simple-question   Simple interactive prompt

After choosing a command with the cursor keys and pressing enter, ths script will be executed.

Simple Instacli example scripts

* Available commands: greet             Prints a greeting
---
Hello, World!

You can also run in non-interactive mode. In that case the script will just print the list of available commands and exit.

Once you know which script you want to execute, simply chain them as commands on the command line. For example, to execute the greet.cli script in the basic directory, do:

cli basic greet

This will give the expected output:

Hello, World!

---

Supplying input

Some scripts take input. Use the --help option to list the supported parameters

cli --help basic greet

Prints a greeting

Options:
  --name   Your name

With that information we can give the script some custom input:

cli basic greet --name Alice

This will print:

Hello, Alice!

Capturing output

Some Instacli commands will produce output. By default, Instacli does not print the output. Use the --output option to see it.

For example, the greet script uses a Print command to show the greeting, whereas create-greeting does not print anything but creates output to be used by another script.

Running create-greeting like this will show nothing:

cli basic create-greeting --name Bob

The output is empty:

We will only see the output when passing the --output parameter, or its shortcut -o:

cli -o basic create-greeting --name Bob

Hello Bob!