muxrpc-usage

nice helpful usage messages for muxrpc

data structure

muxrpc commands need to return a data structure describing their commands and options. muxrpc-usage can then render it into helpful commands.

{
  description: description_of_app,
  commands: {
    <Group>: {
      description: description_of_group,
      single: <name>?, //optional, name of option used if called a single positional arg, without --
      commands: {
        <name>: <subgroup|command>,...
      }
    },
    <Command>: {
      type: 'source' | 'sink' | 'async' | 'sync', //muxrpc call type
      description: <text> //description of command
      args: {
        <arg>: {
          type: name_of_type,
          optional: boolean,
          default: string, //default value 
          decription: <text>
        },...
      },
    }
  }
}

It is a tree of Group, Command and Option types. The top level is assumed to be a Group. a Group has a description (just a string) and a map of Commands and sub-Groups. A Command has a type (which is always a muxrpc call type), a description and args. Args is a map of Options. Options have a type (which is just a string naming that type) a optional boolean (defaults to true, set to false if this option is mandatory) and a description.

formats

there are various ways to display help text

quick

list the commands available at a level, to be used as a quick reminder when a user mistypes a command for example.

> sbot foo #there is no foo command
createLogStream|get|publish|...

deep

show everything about a command or group

> sbot gossip --help
gossip.add # add peer to table
  --id      [FeedId]?             # An ssb feed identity
  --address [MultiServerAddress]? # a multiserver address of an ssb peer

gossip.rm # remove peer from table
  --id      [FeedId]?             # An ssb feed identity
  --address [MultiServerAddress]? # a multiserver address of an ssb peer

gossip.connect # connect to a peer
  --id      [FeedId]?             # An ssb feed identity
  --address [MultiServerAddress]? # a multiserver address of an ssb peer

gossip.disconnect # disconnect from a peer
  --id      [FeedId]?             # An ssb feed identity
  --address [MultiServerAddress]? # a multiserver address of an ssb peer

gossip.changes # stream of changes to peers table

gossip.reconnect # reconnect to all peers

gossip.disable # disable gossip

gossip.enable # enable gossip