Shopify/cli-ui(opens in a new tab)
Language: Ruby
CLI tooling framework with simple interactive widgets
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- 09/16/2026
Language: Ruby
CLI tooling framework with simple interactive widgets
CLI UI is a small framework for generating nice command-line user interfaces
gem install cli-ui
or add the following to your Gemfile:
gem 'cli-ui'
In your code, simply add a require 'cli/ui'. Most options assume CLI::UI::StdoutRouter.enable has been called.
This may not be an exhaustive list. Please check our documentation for more information.
To handle content flow (see example below)
CLI::UI::StdoutRouter.enable CLI::UI::Frame.open('Frame 1') do CLI::UI::Frame.open('Frame 2') { puts "inside frame 2" } puts "inside frame 1" end
Prompt user with options and ask them to choose. Can answer using arrow keys, vim bindings (j/k), or numbers (or y/n for yes/no questions).
For large numbers of options, using e, :, or G will toggle "line select" mode which allows numbers greater than 9 to be typed and
f or / will allow the user to filter options using a free-form text input.
CLI::UI.ask('What language/framework do you use?', options: %w(rails go ruby python))
To set the color of instruction text:
CLI::UI::Prompt.instructions_color = CLI::UI::Color::GRAY
Can also assign callbacks to each option
CLI::UI::Prompt.ask('What language/framework do you use?') do |handler| handler.option('rails') { |selection| selection } handler.option('go') { |selection| selection } handler.option('ruby') { |selection| selection } handler.option('python') { |selection| selection } end
CLI::UI.ask('Is CLI UI Awesome?', default: 'It is great!')
Handle many multi-threaded processes while suppressing output unless there is an issue. Can update title to show state.
CLI::UI::SpinGroup.new do |spin_group| spin_group.add('Title') { |spinner| sleep 3.0 } spin_group.add('Title 2') { |spinner| sleep 3.0; spinner.update_title('New Title'); sleep 3.0 } end
e.g. {{red:Red}} {{green:Green}}
puts CLI::UI.fmt "{{red:Red}} {{green:Green}}"
e.g. {{*}} => a yellow ⭑
puts CLI::UI.fmt "{{*}} {{v}} {{?}} {{x}}"
CLI::UI::Spinner.spin("building packages: {{@widget/status:1:2:3:4}}") do |spinner| # spinner.update_title(...) sleep(3) end
Show progress of a process or operation.
CLI::UI::Progress.progress do |bar| 100.times do bar.tick end end
Modify the appearance of CLI::UI both globally and on an individual frame level.
To set the default style:
CLI::UI.frame_style = :box
To style an individual frame:
CLI::UI.frame('New Style!', frame_style: :bracket) { puts "It's pretty cool!" }
The default style - :box - is what has been used up until now. The other style - :bracket - looks like this:
CLI::UI.frame_style = :bracket CLI::UI::StdoutRouter.enable CLI::UI::Frame.open('Frame 1') do CLI::UI::Frame.open('Frame 2') { puts "inside frame 2" } puts "inside frame 1" end
We make use of Sorbet in cli-ui. We provide stubs for Sorbet so that you can use this gem even
if you aren't using Sorbet. We activate these stubs if T is undefined when the gem is loaded. For this reason, if you
would like to use this gem and your project does use Sorbet, ensure you load Sorbet before loading cli-ui.
The following code makes use of nested-framing, multi-threaded spinners, formatted text, and more.
require 'cli/ui' CLI::UI::StdoutRouter.enable CLI::UI::Frame.open('{{*}} {{bold:a}}', color: :green) do CLI::UI::Frame.open('{{i}} b', color: :magenta) do CLI::UI::Frame.open('{{?}} c', color: :cyan) do CLI::UI::SpinGroup.new do |sg| sg.add('wow') do |spinner| sleep(2.5) spinner.update_title('second round!') sleep (1.0) end sg.add('such spin') { sleep(1.6) } sg.add('many glyph') { sleep(2.0) } end end end CLI::UI::Frame.divider('{{v}} lol') puts CLI::UI.fmt '{{info:words}} {{red:oh no!}} {{green:success!}}' CLI::UI::SpinGroup.new do |sg| sg.add('more spins') { sleep(0.5) ; raise 'oh no' } end end
Output:
bundle exec rake test. All code should be tested.Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/Shopify/cli-ui.
The code is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.