🐚 local-repl

Project-specific REPLs for Node.js. local-repl allows you to automatically import modules and values into your REPL sessions with simple configuration in your project's package.json and/or .replrc.js.

Features!

• Automatically import modules into your REPL sessions
• Use await in the REPL without having to wrap your code in async functions
• Configure the banner and prompt

Add local-repl to your project

$ npm install local-repl --save-dev
# OR
$ yarn add local-repl --dev

Add the following to package.json. Note: lodash is used as an example here; it is not required to use local-repl.

{
  "scripts": {
    "repl": "local-repl"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "local-repl": "^3.0.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "lodash": "^4.17.4",
  },
  "repl": [
    "lodash",
  ]
}

Run it

$ npm run repl

This will start a REPL session with lodash already imported.

Specifying aliases

You can pass an array of objects containing the keys "name" (required), "module" (for imports), or "value" (for values).

{
  "repl": [
    {"name": "l", "module": "lodash"},
    {"name": "meaningOfLife", "value": 42}
  ]
}

Importing local modules

Local modules can be imported, too.

{
  "repl": [
    {"name": "project", "module": "./"},
    {"name": "utils", "module": "./lib/utils"}
  ]
}

Using .replrc.js

Instead of defining configuration in "package.json", you may define your configuration in a .replrc.js file. This is useful if you want to dynamically compute modules and values for your REPLs.

// .replrc.js
const User = require('./myapp/models/User');
 
module.exports = {
  context: [
    'lodash',
    'myapp/utils',
    {name: 'me', value: User.getByEmail('sloria')},
  ]
}

Note: Configuration defined in .replrc.js takes precedence over configuration defined in package.json.

Defining context as an object

Context can be defined as an object rather than an array.

// .replrc.js
const User = require('./myapp/models/User');
 
module.exports ={
  context: {
    l: require('lodash'),
    utils: require('myapp/utils'),
    me: User.getByEmail('sloria'),
  }
}

Promises as context values

Context values that are promises will be resolved before the REPL starts.

// .replrc.js
const promise = new Promise((resolve) => {
  setTimeout(() => {
    resolve(42);
  }, 500);
});
 
module.exports = {
  // REPL will have meaningOfLife with value 42 in context
  context: {
    meaningOfLife: promise,
  }
};

await support

You can use await in your REPL sessions without having to create async functions.

Just add the following to your package.json:

{
  "repl": {
    "enableAwait": true
  }
}

Or in .replrc.js

// .replrc.js
module.exports = {
  enableAwait: true
}
 

More configuration

Configuring the prompt

In package.json:

{
  "repl": {
    "prompt": "myproject $"
  }
}

In .replrc.js:

// .replrc.js
module.exports = {
  prompt: 'myproject $'
}

You can also define prompt as a function in .replrc.js. The function will receive the REPL context and the parsed package.json object.

// .replrc.js
module.exports = {
  prompt: (context, pkg) => {
    return `${pkg.name} ${pkg.version} $`
  }
}

Configuring the banner

In package.json:

{
  "repl": {
    "banner": "Welcome to the myapp REPL. Happy hacking!"
  }
}

You can also define banner as a function in .replrc.js. The function will receive the REPL context and the parsed package.json object.

// .replrc.js
const _ = require('lodash');
const chalk = require('chalk');
 
module.exports = {
  context: [
    {name: 'l', value: _},
    {name: 'meaningOfLife', value: 42},
  ],
  banner: (context, pkg) => {
    console.log(chalk.bold(`Welcome to the REPL for myapp ${pkg.version}.`));
    console.log(chalk.green('Happy hacking!'));
    console.log(chalk.cyan('Context:'), _.keys(context).sort().join(', '));
  }
}

Programmatic usage

local-repl can be used programatically. The .start(options) function takes the same options as Node's built-in repl.start(options) and returns a Promise that resolves to a REPLServer instance.

const repl = require('local-repl');
 
repl.start({ prompt: '< -_- > ' });

Inspiration

local-repl is inspired a number of other great projects:

• konch - REPL configuration for Python
• n_ - Node.js REPL with lodash

License

MIT licensed. See LICENSE for more details.