Simple gem for CLI UIs

If you want to build a small CLI application, that supports more advanced inputs than gets, I recommend using the cli-ui Show archive.org snapshot gem. It's a small dependency-free library that provides basic building blocks, like an interactive prompt:

require "cli/ui"

CLI::UI::StdoutRouter.enable

puts CLI::UI.fmt "a small {{red:demo}}"

# supports h, j, k, l, arrows and even filtering
CLI::UI::Prompt.ask("Choose a plan:", options: ["small", "medium", "large"])

or a simple progress bar for long running scripts:

# script/some_long_running_script.rb
tick_percentage = 1.0 / Record.count

CLI::UI::Progress.progress("Huge Migration") do |bar|
  Record.find_each do |record|
    record.migrate
    
    bar.tick(percent: tick_percentage)
  end
end

Niklas Hä.

Say thanks

Last edit

2025-06-25

Niklas Hä.

License

Source code in this card is licensed under the MIT License.

Posted by Niklas Hä. to makandra dev (2025-06-25 15:26)