[](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#content)
# Terminal UI Library for Elixir
* [Motivation](#motivation)
* [Installation](#installation)
* [Basic Usage](#basic-usage)
* [Display text on the screen](#display-text-on-the-screen)
* [Ask the user for input](#ask-the-user-for-input)
* [Ask the user for a password](#ask-the-user-for-a-password)
* [Ask the user for confirmation](#ask-the-user-for-confirmation)
* [Custom confirmation choices](#custom-confirmation-choices)
* [List of selections](#list-of-selections)
* [Tables](#tables)
* [Advanced Usage](#advanced-usage-with-subcommands)
* [Example Application](#example)
[](https://livebook.dev/run?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fsilbermm%2Fprompt%2Fblob%2Fmain%2Fexample.livemd)
## Motivation
To create a really great development experience and API for Elixir developers that want to build commandline tools.
## Installation
Add `prompt` to your list of dependencies in `mix.exs`:
```elixir
def deps do
[
{:prompt, "~> 0.8.0"}
]
end
```
[Read the official documentation](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html)
## Basic Usage
All of the following commands take a keyword list of options for things like text color and positioning.
### Display text on the screen
[Prompt.display/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#display/2)
```elixir
Prompt.display("Hello, world!")
```
### Ask the user for input
[Prompt.text/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#text/2)
Useful for prompting the user to enter freeform text
```elixir
Prompt.text("Enter info here")
```
Will display:
```bash
> Enter info here:
```
and wait for the user to enter text
### Ask the user for a password
[Prompt.password/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#password/2)
When you need to hide the input that the user types
```elixir
Prompt.password("Enter password")
```
### Ask the user for confirmation
[Prompt.confirm/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#confirm/2)
```elixir
Prompt.confirm("Are you sure?")
```
Will display:
```bash
> Are you sure? (Y/n):
```
and will allow the user to just press [enter] to confirm
If you'd prefer `n` to be the default pass the `default_answer` option
```elixir
Prompt.confirm("Are you sure?", default_answer: :no)
```
Returns `:yes` or `:no` based on the answer
### Custom confirmation choices
[Prompt.choice/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#choice/2)
Sometimes yes/no aren't the only choices a user can make, this method allows you to pass any choices as the confirmation.
```elixir
Prompt.choice("Accept, Reload or Cancel", accept: "a", reload: "r", cancel: "c")
```
displays
```bash
> Accept, Reload or Cancel (A/r/c):
```
Returns the key of the answer i.e `:accept`, `:reload` or `cancel` in this exammple
### List of selections
[Prompt.select/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#select/2)
To show the user a list of options to select from
```elixir
Prompt.select("Choose a protocol", ["file://", "ssh://", "ftp://"])
```
Displays:
```bash
[1] file://
[2] ssh://
[3] ftp://
> Choose a protocol [1-3]:
```
and returns a string of their choice
### Tables
[Prompt.table/2](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#table/2)
To show a table of data
```elixir
Prompt.table([["Hello", "from", "the", "terminal!"],["this", "is", "another", "row"]])
```
Will display
```bash
> +-------+------+---------+----------+
| Hello | from | the | terminal |
| this | is | another | row |
+-------+------+---------+----------+
```
## Advanced Usage with Subcommands
To use the more advanced features, see the [official documentation](https://hexdocs.pm/prompt/Prompt.html#module-subcommands)
## Example
For a complete example, take a look at [Slim - a cherry-picking tool](https://github.com/silbermm/slim_pickens)
