Text & Password

Text input

import { text } from "@arshad-shah/clif/prompts";

const name = await text({
  message: "What is your name?",
  placeholder: "Enter your name",
  default: "World",
  required: true,
  validate: (val) =>
    val.length < 2 ? "Name must be at least 2 characters" : true,
});

validate returns true for success, or a string error message that is shown to the user before re-prompting.

Text options

Option	Type	Description
message	string	Prompt message
placeholder	string	Greyed-out hint text
default	string	Value used when Enter is hit
required	boolean	Reject empty input
validate	(val: string) => string | true	Custom validator

Password input

import { password } from "@arshad-shah/clif/prompts";

const secret = await password({
  message: "Enter API token:",
  mask: "•",
});

Each character typed is replaced with the mask character (default ●). The actual value is returned to your handler.

password requires a TTY — when stdin is piped, it rejects with PromptError { code: "not-a-tty" }. Use text for non-interactive flows.

Password options

Option	Type	Description
message	string	Prompt message
mask	string	Replacement glyph (default ●)
validate	(val: string) => string | true	Custom validator