Build Thor CLI Project in Under a Second

We’ll build a CLI project that is based on Thor in under a second.

thor_template is a tool that builds a fully functional CLI command based on Thor. The commands immediately work and there are even specs.

Quick Start

Summary of commands so you can copy and paste:

gem install thor_template
thor_template new mycli
cd mycli
bin/mycli help
bin/mycli hello world
rake

A Little More Details

Commands with a little more detailed explaination. Install and generate the project:

gem install thor_template
thor_template new mycli
cd mycli

What the generated directory structure looks like:

$ tree
.
├── Gemfile
├── Gemfile.lock
├── Guardfile
├── LICENSE.txt
├── README.md
├── Rakefile
├── bin
│   └── mycli
├── lib
│   ├── mycli
│   │   ├── cli
│   │   │   └── help.rb
│   │   ├── cli.rb
│   │   ├── command.rb
│   │   └── version.rb
│   ├── mycli.rb
│   └── thor_template
├── mycli.gemspec
└── spec
    ├── lib
    │   └── cli_spec.rb
    └── spec_helper.rb
7 directories, 15 files

Default help menu provided:

$ bin/mycli help
Commands:
  mycli hello NAME      # say hello to NAME
  mycli help [COMMAND]  # Describe available commands or one specific command
Options:
  [--verbose], [--no-verbose]
  [--noop], [--no-noop]
$

A built-in starter command provided:

$ bin/mycli hello tung
Hello tung
$

Spec output:

$ rake spec
Mycli::CLI
  mycli
    should hello world
Finished in 0.10423 seconds (files took 0.29091 seconds to load)
1 example, 0 failures
$

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Originally published at blog.boltops.com on September 14, 2017.