Manifest API Reference

The Manifest layer extracts serializable metadata from definitions for introspection, help generation, and tooling.

Functions

getCliManifest(definition)

Extracts the manifest from a CLI definition.

Parameters:

• definition: CliDefinition & { name: string } - The CLI definition after optional package.json resolution; name must be present (as produced internally by createCli(), or set explicitly when calling getCliManifest() yourself)

Returns: CliManifest

Example:

import { defineCli, getCliManifest } from "cheloni";

const definition = defineCli({
  name: "my-cli",
  version: "1.0.0"
});

const manifest = getCliManifest(definition);

getCommandManifest(command)

Extracts the manifest from a command definition.

Parameters:

• command: CommandManifest - The command definition

Returns: CommandManifest

Example:

import { defineCommand, getCommandManifest } from "cheloni";

const command = defineCommand({
  name: "build",
  description: "Build the project"
});

const manifest = getCommandManifest(command);

getRootCommandsManifest(command)

Extracts the manifest from a root command definition.

Parameters:

• command: RootCommandDefinition - The root command definition

Returns: RootCommandManifest

Example:

import { defineRootCommand, getRootCommandsManifest } from "cheloni";

const rootCommand = defineRootCommand({
  handler: () => {}
});

const manifest = getRootCommandsManifest(rootCommand);

getPluginManifest(definition)

Extracts the manifest from a plugin definition.

Parameters:

• definition: PluginDefinition - The plugin definition

Returns: PluginManifest

Example:

import { definePlugin, getPluginManifest } from "cheloni";

const plugin = definePlugin({
  name: "my-plugin"
});

const manifest = getPluginManifest(plugin);

getOptionManifest(name, schema?)

Extracts the manifest from an option schema.

Parameters:

• name: string - The option name
• schema?: z.ZodTypeAny - The option schema

Returns: OptionManifest

Example:

import { getOptionManifest } from "cheloni";
import { z } from "zod";

const manifest = getOptionManifest(
  "verbose",
  z.boolean().optional()
);

getOptionsManifest(schema)

Extracts manifests for all options in a schema object.

Parameters:

• schema: z.ZodTypeAny - The options schema

Returns: OptionManifest[]

Example:

import { getOptionsManifest } from "cheloni";
import { z } from "zod";

const manifest = getOptionsManifest(
  z.object({
    verbose: z.boolean(),
    output: z.string()
  })
);

getPositionalManifest(schema?)

Extracts the manifest from a positional schema.

Parameters:

• schema?: z.ZodTypeAny - The positional schema

Returns: PositionalManifest | undefined

Example:

import { getPositionalManifest } from "cheloni";
import { z } from "zod";

const manifest = getPositionalManifest(z.string());

getPluginsManifest(plugins)

Extracts manifests for multiple plugins.

Parameters:

• plugins: PluginDefinition[] - The plugin definitions

Returns: PluginManifest[]

Example:

import { definePlugin, getPluginsManifest } from "cheloni";

const plugins = [
  definePlugin({ name: "plugin1" }),
  definePlugin({ name: "plugin2" })
];

const manifests = getPluginsManifest(plugins);

Types

CliManifest

interface CliManifest {
  name: string;
  version?: string;
  description?: string;
  details?: string;
  deprecated?: boolean | string;
  command?: CommandManifest;
  plugins?: PluginManifest[];
}

CommandManifest

interface CommandManifest {
  name: string;
  paths?: string[];
  deprecated?: boolean | string;
  description?: string;
  examples?: string[];
  options?: OptionManifest[];
  positional?: PositionalManifest;
  plugins?: PluginManifest[];
  commands?: CommandManifest[];
  details?: string;
}

RootCommandManifest

interface RootCommandManifest extends CommandManifest {
  name: "root";
}

PluginManifest

interface PluginManifest {
  name: string;
}

OptionManifest

interface OptionManifest {
  name: string;
  description?: string;
  details?: string;
  aliases?: string[];
  deprecated?: boolean | string;
}

PositionalManifest

interface PositionalManifest {
  name?: string;
  description?: string;
  details?: string;
  deprecated?: boolean | string;
}

• name - Display name for the positional argument (used in help output, e.g. <file> instead of <positional>). Set via .meta({ name: "file" }) on the Zod schema.

Usage

Manifests are primarily used for:

• Help Generation - Generating help text from command structure
• Introspection - Inspecting CLI structure programmatically
• Tooling - Building IDE support, autocomplete, etc.
• Documentation - Generating documentation from CLI definitions