npm-cli

npm-cli

npmcli — a command line for the npm package registry.

A single pure-Go binary that reads public npm data over plain HTTPS, shapes it into clean records, and prints output that pipes into the rest of your tools. No API key, nothing to run alongside it.

The same package is also a resource-URI driver, so a host program like ant can address npm packages as npm:// URIs.

Install

go install github.com/tamnd/npm-cli/cmd/npm@latest

Or grab a prebuilt binary from the releases, or run the container image:

docker run --rm ghcr.io/tamnd/npmcli:latest --help

Usage

npmcli info express                     # latest version, author, keywords, repo
npmcli info express -o json             # as JSON, ready for jq
npmcli version react 18.2.0             # metadata for a specific version
npmcli search "react hooks" --limit 10  # search packages
npmcli downloads react --period last-month  # download counts
npmcli deps express                     # list dependencies
npmcli --help                           # the whole command tree

Every command shares one output contract: -o table|json|jsonl|csv|tsv|url|raw, --fields to pick columns, --template for a custom line, and -n to limit. The default adapts to where output goes (a table on a terminal, JSONL in a pipe), so the same command reads well by hand and parses cleanly downstream.

Serve it

The same operations are available over HTTP and as an MCP tool set for agents:

npmcli serve --addr :7777    # GET /v1/info/<name>  returns NDJSON
npmcli mcp                   # speak MCP over stdio

Use it as a resource-URI driver

npmcli registers a npm domain the way a program registers a database driver with database/sql. A host enables it with one blank import:

import _ "github.com/tamnd/npm-cli/npm"

Then ant (or any program that links the package) dereferences npm:// URIs without knowing anything about npm:

ant get npm://package/express           # fetch the record
ant url npm://package/react             # the live https URL

Development

cmd/npm/   thin main: hands cli.NewApp to kit.Run
cli/                 assembles the kit App from the npm domain
npm/                the library: HTTP client, data models, and domain.go (the driver)
docs/                tago documentation site

make build      # ./bin/npmcli
make test       # go test ./...
make vet        # go vet ./...

Releasing

Push a version tag and GitHub Actions runs GoReleaser:

git tag v0.1.0
git push --tags

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.