Config

The following examples assumes a config of the following:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2015",
    "module": "CommonJS",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node"
  },
  "include": ["cli.ts"]
}

Some of the code may be different depending on your config.

TypeScript usage examples

The TypeScript definitions take into account yargs' type key and the presence of demandOption/default.

The following .options() definition:

#!/usr/bin/env node
import yargs from 'yargs/yargs';

const argv = yargs(process.argv.slice(2)).options({
  a: { type: 'boolean', default: false },
  b: { type: 'string', demandOption: true },
  c: { type: 'number', alias: 'chill' },
  d: { type: 'array' },
  e: { type: 'count' },
  f: { choices: ['1', '2', '3'] }
}).argv;

Will result in an argv that's typed like so:

{
  [x: string]: unknown;
  a: boolean;
  b: string;
  c: number | undefined;
  d: (string | number)[] | undefined;
  e: number;
  f: string | undefined;
  _: string[];
  $0: string;
} | Promise<{
  [x: string]: unknown;
  a: boolean;
  b: string;
  c: number | undefined;
  d: (string | number)[] | undefined;
  e: number;
  f: string | undefined;
  _: string[];
  $0: string;
}>

As you can see it's a union of the arguments and a promise which resolves to the arguments. The reason for this is because in yargs, you can have commands, and those commands can be asynchronous. If they are asynchronous, the parser would resolve after the command is finished.

The reason it's a union is because when you call .argv, yargs typing doesn't know if you have any asynchronous commands, so it just gives both of them.

This might result in some errors when accessing the properties:

const argv = yargs(process.argv.slice(2)).options({
  a: { type: 'boolean', default: false },
  ...
}).argv;

argv.a // => Property 'a' does not exist on type...

If you know your program is not using any asynchronous commands, you can simply use #parseSync

const argv = yargs(process.argv.slice(2)).options({
  a: { type: 'boolean', default: false },
  ...
}).parseSync();

argv.a // => No error, type: boolean

If you do have asynchronous commands, you will need to use await:

const parser = yargs(process.argv.slice(2)).options({
  a: { type: 'boolean', default: false },
  ...
});


(async() => {
  const argv = await parser.argv;
  argv.a // => No error, type: boolean
})();

You will likely want to define an interface for your application, describing the form that the parsed argv will take:

interface Arguments {
  [x: string]: unknown;
  a: boolean;
  b: string;
  c: number | undefined;
  d: (string | number)[] | undefined;
  e: number;
  f: string | undefined;
}

More specific typing for choices()

To improve the choices option typing you can also specify it as const:

const argv = yargs.option('difficulty', {
  choices: ["normal", "nightmare", "hell"] as const,
  demandOption: true
}).argv;

argv.difficulty will get type 'normal' | 'nightmare' | 'hell'.