Module prompt 

Interactive prompts — clack/prompts-style.

Hello, prompt

use cli_ui::prompt::{intro, outro, text, confirm, OnCancel};

fn main() {
    intro("Set up a new project");

    let name = text("What's your name?")
        .placeholder("Anya")
        .run()
        .or_cancel("Cancelled.");

    let public = confirm("Make it public?")
        .default(true)
        .run()
        .or_cancel("Cancelled.");

    outro(format!("Hello {name}! profile is {}.",
        if public { "public" } else { "private" }));
}

The mental model

Every prompt is one of three things:

1. A builder — text("…"), select("…"), etc. Chain .placeholder(), .default(), .validate(), .option() etc. Always finish with .run().
2. A frame helper — intro, outro, note, cancel, boxed::boxed. They print a single framed line/block and return immediately. Use them to surround your prompt flow.
3. A long-running task display — spinner, progress, tasks, task_log. These run in the foreground while non-prompt work happens.

Everything renders to stderr so your prompts don’t pollute pipes.

The four categories at a glance

Question prompts

Prompt	Picks
text	A line of text
secret	A masked line (password, API key)
multiline	Several lines
confirm	Yes / No
select	One option from a list
multiselect	Many options from a list
groupmultiselect	Many options from grouped lists
autocomplete	One option, filtered by typing
select_key	One option by single keypress
date::date	A yyyy-mm-dd date
path::path	A filesystem path with completion

Framing

intro / outro / note / cancel / boxed::boxed / log / stream.

Live work

spinner / progress / tasks / task_log.

Composition

group::group runs many prompts sequentially and collects their answers.

Validation

Validators are promoted to the prompt root so they import like any other constructor:

use cli_ui::prompt::{text, min_chars, has_upper, has_digit};

let pw = text("Password")
    .rule(min_chars(12).and(has_upper()).and(has_digit()))
    .run();

Customisation

Theme everything in one call via settings::update_colors:

cli_ui::prompt::settings::update_colors(|c| {
    c.accent = anstyle::Style::new()
        .fg_color(Some(anstyle::Color::Ansi(anstyle::AnsiColor::Magenta)))
        .bold();
});

Cancellation

When the user hits Ctrl-C or Esc, .run() returns Err(PromptError::Interrupted). The OnCancel extension trait turns that into a clean exit:

use cli_ui::prompt::{text, OnCancel};
let name = text("Your name").run().or_cancel("Aborted — see you next time.");

Extending

Implement core::Prompt to ship your own prompt — see the existing prompts in this module for templates. The runner handles raw mode, cleanup, validation transitions, and the answered redraw for you.

One-line import

For quick scripts and examples, glob-import the prelude:

use cli_ui::prompt::prelude::*;

Re-exports

pub use autocomplete::autocomplete;

pub use autocomplete::AutocompleteSelected;

pub use boxed::boxed;

pub use boxed::Align as BoxAlign;

pub use boxed::BoxOptions;

pub use confirm::confirm;

pub use date::date;

pub use date::Date;

pub use date::DatePrompt;

pub use group::group;

pub use groupmultiselect::groupmultiselect;

pub use groupmultiselect::GroupItem;

pub use groupmultiselect::GroupSelected;

pub use multiline::multiline;

pub use multiselect::multiselect;

pub use multiselect::MultiSelected;

pub use path::path;

pub use progress_bar::progress;

pub use progress_bar::Progress;

pub use progress_bar::Style as ProgressStyle;

pub use select::select;

pub use select::Selected;

pub use select_key::select_key;

pub use select_key::KeySelected;

pub use spinner::spinner;

pub use spinner::Spinner;

pub use task_log::task_log;

pub use task_log::TaskLog;

pub use tasks::tasks;

pub use tasks::Task;

pub use text::secret;

pub use text::text;

pub use validate::alpha_only;

pub use validate::alphanumeric;

pub use validate::email;

pub use validate::ends_with;

pub use validate::exact_chars;

pub use validate::float_between;

pub use validate::forbid_chars;

pub use validate::has_digit;

pub use validate::has_lower;

pub use validate::has_special;

pub use validate::has_upper;

pub use validate::int_between;

pub use validate::max_chars;

pub use validate::min_chars;

pub use validate::one_of;

pub use validate::only_chars;

pub use validate::required;

pub use validate::starts_with;

pub use validate::word_count;

pub use validate::words_between;

pub use validate::Validate;

pub use validate::Validator;

pub use settings::colors;

pub use settings::set_colors;

pub use settings::update_colors;

pub use settings::Colors;

Modules

autocomplete

Autocomplete prompt — type to filter, arrows to navigate.

boxed

Bordered text block — ports @clack/prompts box().

confirm

Boolean confirmation prompt — built on the Prompt trait.

core

Core abstractions every prompt implements.

date

Date picker — built on the Prompt trait.

group

Sequentially-chained prompts — ports @clack/prompts group().

groupmultiselect

Grouped multi-select prompt — built on the Prompt trait.

log

Framed log messages — ports @clack/prompts log.{info,warn,error,success,step,message}.

multiline

Multi-line text input — built on the Prompt trait.

multiselect

Multi-choice select prompt — built on the Prompt trait.

path

Filesystem path picker — built on the Prompt trait.

prelude

Glob-importable shortcut for the most common entry points.

progress_bar

Progress bar — ports @clack/prompts progress().

select

Single-choice select — built on the Prompt trait.

select_key

Single-keypress option select — built on the Prompt trait.

settings

Global prompt settings — ports @clack/core’s settings.ts.

spinner

Animated spinner — ports @clack/prompts spinner().

stream

Streaming log output — ports @clack/prompts stream.{info,warn,error,success,step,message}.

task_log

Task with a collapsible running log — ports @clack/prompts taskLog().

tasks

Sequential task runner — ports @clack/prompts tasks().

text

Free-text and masked password prompts — built on the Prompt trait.

validate

Composable input validators — ports @clack/core’s runValidation with a library-of-rules on top, and ports utils/string.ts-style helpers.

Enums

PromptError

Error returned by prompt .run() methods.

Traits

OnCancel

Extension trait: gracefully end the process when the user cancels a prompt.

Functions

cancel

Print ■ message — used after a prompt was cancelled / interrupted.

intro

Print ┌ message — opens a connected prompt session.

is_cancel

true when the error came from Ctrl+C / Ctrl+D / Escape.

note

Print a framed informational note between prompts.

outro

Print └ message — closes a prompt session.

Type Aliases

Result

Result alias for prompt operations.