Prompts

Prompts are interactive terminal widgets you can use to accept user input. Ace prompts are powered by the @poppinss/prompts package, which supports the following prompt types.

• input
• list
• password
• confirm
• toggle
• select
• multi-select
• autocomplete

Ace prompts are built with testing in mind. When writing tests, you may trap prompts and respond to them programmatically.

See also: Testing ace commands

Displaying a prompt

You may display prompts using the this.prompt property available on all Ace commands.

import { BaseCommand } from '@adonisjs/core/ace'

export default class GreetCommand extends BaseCommand {
  async run() {
    const modelName = await this.prompt.ask('Enter the model name')
    
    console.log(modelName)
  }
}

Prompt options

Following is the list of options accepted by prompts. You may reference this table as the single source of truth.

{
  result(value) {
    return value.toUpperCase()
  }
}

{
  format(value) {
    return value.toUpperCase()
  }
}

{
  format(value) {
    return value.length > 6
    ? true
    : 'Model name must be 6 characters long'
  }
}

Text input

You may render the prompt to accept text input using the prompt.ask method. The method accepts the prompt message as the first parameter and the options object as the second parameter.

await this.prompt.ask('Enter the model name')

// Validate input
await this.prompt.ask('Enter the model name', {
  validate(value) {
    return value.length > 0
  }
})

// Default value
await this.prompt.ask('Enter the model name', {
  default: 'User'
})

Masked input

As the name suggests, the masked input prompt masks the user input in the terminal. You may display the masked prompt using the prompt.secure method.

The method accepts the prompt message as the first parameter and the options object as the second parameter.

await this.prompt.secure('Enter account password')

await this.prompt.secure('Enter account password', {
  validate(value) {
    return value.length < 6
      ? 'Password must be 6 characters long'
      : true
  }
})

List of choices

You may display a list of choices for a single selection using the prompt.choice method. The method accepts the following parameters.

1. Prompt message.
2. An array of choices.
3. Optional options object.

await this.prompt.choice('Select package manager', [
  'npm',
  'yarn',
  'pnpm'
])

To mention a different display value, you can define options as objects. The name property is returned as the prompt result, and the message property is displayed in the terminal.

await this.prompt.choice('Select database driver', [
  {
    name: 'sqlite',
    message: 'SQLite'
  },
  {
    name: 'mysql',
    message: 'MySQL'
  },
  {
    name: 'pg',
    message: 'PostgreSQL'
  }
])

Multi-select choices

You may use the prompt.multiple method to allow multiple selections in the choices list. The accepted parameters are the same as the choice prompt.

await this.prompt.multiple('Select database drivers', [
  {
    name: 'sqlite',
    message: 'SQLite'
  },
  {
    name: 'mysql',
    message: 'MySQL'
  },
  {
    name: 'pg',
    message: 'PostgreSQL'
  }
])

Confirm action

You can display a confirmation prompt with Yes/No options using the prompt.confirm method. The method accepts the prompt message as the first parameter and the options object as the second parameter.

The confirm prompt returns a boolean value.

const deleteFiles = await this.prompt.confirm(
  'Want to delete all files?'
)

if (deleteFiles) {
}

To customize the Yes/No options display value, you may use the prompt.toggle method.

const deleteFiles = await this.prompt.toggle(
  'Want to delete all files?',
  ['Yup', 'Nope']
)

if (deleteFiles) {
}

Autocomplete

The autocomplete prompt is a combination of the select and the multi-select prompt, but with the ability to fuzzy search the choices.

const selectedCity = await this.prompt.autocomplete(
  'Select your city',
  await getCitiesList()
)