vhrd_cli

Small shared crates for Rust command-line tools, and the guide they follow: the twin of vhrd_egui for CLIs.

• The guide: docs/ux-guide.md says how a CLI looks and behaves: completion, help, colour, output, errors and exit codes, progress, prompts, configuration, --version and the tests that keep it so. Read it before building or changing a CLI.
• The crates (planned, vc_*) do the parts every CLI needs, so a new CLI gets them by adding a dependency instead of copying code:
  • vc_build: the --version line with version, git SHA and commit time.
  • vc_ui: colour that turns off without a terminal or with NO_COLOR, the error line, exit codes, safe printing of outside strings.
  • vc_complete: bash, zsh and fish completion with live values and help texts, on clap's dynamic completion.
  • vc_cmd, vc_usage, vc_steps: commands that register themselves, usage records, steps with progress, tables and deploy summaries.
  • vc_picker: the picker on Tab when a value has several hits.
  • vc_template: a small CLI that shows every piece.

Heavy parts (progress bars, the terminal UI of the picker) sit in crates of their own, so a small CLI pays only for what it uses.

What works and what is planned: FEATURES.md. Changes: CHANGELOG.md. Working on the repo: AGENTS.md.

Commands

• just test: all tests (just test --changed: only the crates changed against main and their dependents).
• just lint: clippy, formatting and unused dependencies; it only checks.
• just install, just deploy: build with the deploy profile; deploy first brings the checkout up to main.

The tests run through cargo-nextest; just lint needs cargo-machete.

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option. Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this work, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.