inquirer

Inquirer is a JavaScript library for building interactive command-line prompts in Node.js. It provides a collection of prompt interfaces that enable CLI programs to solicit input from users in a consistent, testable way. The library is published as the npm package inquirer and is used by many CLI tools and scaffolding frameworks to guide user input during setup and configuration.

The core API is inquirer.prompt(questions), where questions is an array of question objects. Each question defines a type, a name, a message, and optional parameters such as choices, default, validate, filter, and when. Supported prompt types include input, confirm, list, rawlist, expand, checkbox, password, and editor. Prompts can be asynchronous, returning a promise that resolves to an answers object with keys corresponding to question names.

Inquirer builds prompts using the terminal, handles user input, and validates answers according to the defined validators. It can conditionally skip questions, transform results, and coordinate multiple prompts to collect structured data.

It is widely used in Node.js tooling, including project generators and package managers, to gather configuration details from users. The project emphasizes accessibility, consistency, and extensibility, with support for custom prompt types via plugins. Inquirer is open source and designed to be easily extended to fit different CLI workflows.