chalk-cli

terminal string styling with colors and formatting

TLDR

Style text with color
$ chalk red "Hello World"
Apply multiple styles
$ chalk red bold "Important text"
Use template syntax
$ chalk -t "{red.bold Unicorns} are {blue fun}"
Read from stdin
$ echo "text" | chalk --stdin green
Negate a style in template
$ chalk -t "{red text {~red normal}}"
Output without newline
$ chalk -n yellow "No newline"
Demo all styles
$ chalk --demo

SYNOPSIS

chalk [options] style... stringecho string | chalk --stdin style...

DESCRIPTION

chalk-cli is a command-line tool for styling terminal strings with colors and formatting. It wraps the popular Node.js Chalk library, providing access to its styling capabilities from shell scripts and the command line.Styles include foreground and background colors (standard and bright variants), as well as text modifiers like bold, dim, italic, underline, inverse, and strikethrough. Multiple styles can be combined, and the template syntax allows applying different styles to different parts of a single string.Input can come from command arguments or stdin, making it useful in shell pipelines for highlighting output or building colorful CLI interfaces.

PARAMETERS

-t, --template

Use template syntax for nested styles
--stdin
Read input from stdin
-n, --no-newline
Don't emit newline after output
--demo
Show demo of all available styles
-c, --color
Force color support

STYLES

Colors

black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, gray
Bright colors
redBright, greenBright, yellowBright, etc.
Background
bgRed, bgGreen, bgBlue, etc.
Modifiers
bold, dim, italic, underline, inverse, strikethrough

TEMPLATE SYNTAX

Templates allow inline nested styling:

$ {red.bold text}
{red red {~red normal}}  # ~ negates style

INSTALLATION

$ npm install --global chalk-cli

INSTALL

brew install chalk-cli

CAVEATS

Requires Node.js. Color support depends on terminal capabilities. Use --color to force colors in pipes.

SEE ALSO

tput(1), printf(1)

RESOURCES

Source code