npm-scripts-info

npm-scripts-info

Display the description of your npm scripts.

Installation

npm i -S npm-scripts-info

Usage

Using the scripts-info property

Add the descriptions (scripts-info) to your package.json. Afterwards, add npm-scripts-info to your scripts.

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "scripts": {
  	"info": "npm-scripts-info"
  },
  "scripts-info": {
  	"info": "Displays information about the scripts.",
  	"watch:build": "Compiles the scripts and watches for changes.",
  	"start": "Kickstarts the application."
  }
}

Finally, run npm run info.

Usings scripts prefixed with ?

For modules with dozens of scripts it might be a better option to store the descriptions near the commands. npm-scripts-info allows to store the scripts descriptions in the scripts property. In order to add a script description, just prefix its name with ?.

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "scripts": {
    "?info": "Display information about the scripts.",
    "info": "npm-scripts-info",
 
    "?watch:build": "Watch codebase, trigger build when source code changes",
    "watch:build": "webpack --watch",
 
    "?start": "echo Kickstarts the application.",
    "start": "node index"
  }
}

Have you noticed the echo command in the start description? Hence the descriptions are inside the script property, they can be called using npm run. By adding the echo command to the description properties you can make valid scripts from them. Therefore, running npm run ?start will print the description of the start script. And the great thing is, npm-scripts-info is smart enough to fetch the description from the echo command!

NOTE: The prefixed commands will be looked up for descriptions only if the package.json doesn't have a scripts-info property.

Custom Reporters

You can customize the output by specifying a reporter.

npm-scripts-info -r=my-reporter

You can check the default reporter to get the gist of how it works. It's very simple.

Note: If you're publishing your own reporter, please prefix it with npm-scripts-info (e.g., npm-scripts-info-my-reporter) for searchability.

Using the JavaScript API

You can fetch the scripts descriptions from a package.json in JavaScript.

var getScriptsInfo = require('npm-scripts-info');
var readPkgUp = require('read-pkg-up');
 
readPkgUp
  .then(function(result) {
     var scriptsInfo = getScriptsInfo(result.pkg);
     console.log(result.scriptsInfo);
     //> { test: 'Run the tests' } 
  });

Default Descriptions

Some of the npm scripts are standardized. npm-scripts-info provides default descriptions for them, if no custom description specified in scripts-info.

• info - Display information about the scripts
• start - Kickstart the application
• test - Run the tests
• build - Build the package
• watch - Watch codebase, trigger build when source code changes
• cover - Execute test coverage

Preview