nomnom

Nomnom is a tool for Node.js developers who are building command-line programs. It helps those programs understand the instructions (or "arguments") that users type when running them from a terminal, turning things like --debug or -c config.json into organized settings the program can easily use. It also automatically generates help text, so if a user types --help, they get a clean summary of what options are available.

At a high level, you tell nomnom what options your program expects—things like short abbreviations, default values, or whether an option is just a simple on/off switch. When someone runs your program, nomnom reads the command line, figures out what the user typed, and hands you a tidy list of the results. It handles common conventions like -d, --debug, --no-debug, and --file=test.txt. It even interprets values intelligently, so typing --count=3 gives you the number 3 instead of just the text "3."

This would be useful for anyone building a command-line utility, like a file converter, a testing tool, or a script for automating tasks. For example, if you built a tool called "runtests" that takes a file path and an optional debug flag, nomnom handles reading those inputs and prints a helpful usage message if the user gets confused. It also supports "commands," similar to how git add or git rebase work, where a single program has different modes of operation, each with its own set of options and help text.

One notable aspect is how much it tries to do for you with very little setup. You can define detailed specifications with rules—like requiring certain options, limiting choices to specific values, or transforming data on the fly—but you can also skip all that and let it parse arguments with zero configuration.

It's worth noting that this project is deprecated, meaning the creator no longer maintains it and recommends using an alternative for new projects.