# minimist-lite

> parse argument options

Latest version **2.3.0** (published 2025-02-10) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install minimist-lite
pnpm add minimist-lite
yarn add minimist-lite
bun add minimist-lite
```

## Health

**Score 45/100 (D)** — status: stable.

Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; high quality score.

Warnings: low downloads; no esm support.

Negative: stale.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.3.0 |
| Published | 2025-02-10 |
| First published | 2021-12-20 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Unpacked size | 36.2 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 13 |
| Author | James Halliday |
| Maintainers | lajos-meszaros |
| Keywords | argv, getopt, parser, optimist |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/minimist-lite
- Repository: https://github.com/meszaros-lajos-gyorgy/minimist-lite
- Issues: https://github.com/meszaros-lajos-gyorgy/minimist-lite/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/minimist-lite

## Alternatives

- [babylon](https://npm.io/package/babylon.md) — 5.1M weekly downloads
- [csscolorparser](https://npm.io/package/csscolorparser.md) — 3.7M weekly downloads
- [expr-eval-fork](https://npm.io/package/expr-eval-fork.md) — 1.5M weekly downloads
- [@leeoniya/ufuzzy](https://npm.io/package/@leeoniya/ufuzzy.md) — 247.7K weekly downloads
- [xml-parser](https://npm.io/package/xml-parser.md) — 78.4K weekly downloads

## Recent versions

- 2.3.0 (latest) — 2025-02-10
- 2.1.0-beta.0 (beta) — 2022-01-21
- 2.2.1 — 2022-03-22
- 2.2.0 — 2022-02-01
- 2.1.0 — 2022-01-21
- 2.0.1 — 2022-01-10
- 2.0.0 — 2021-12-20

## README

# minimist-lite [![npm bundle size](https://badgen.net/bundlephobia/minzip/minimist-lite?style=flat-square)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/minimist-lite) [![package dependency count](https://badgen.net/bundlephobia/dependency-count/minimist-lite?style=flat-square)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/minimist-lite) [![Known Vulnerabilities](https://snyk.io/test/npm/minimist-lite/badge.svg?style=flat-square)](https://snyk.io/test/npm/minimist-lite)

parse argument options

This module is the guts of [optimist](https://www.npmjs.com/package/optimist)'s
argument parser without all the fanciful decoration.

---

## The original minimist repo have been picked up by devs and is now available again under the original name:
https://github.com/minimistjs/minimist

Please use that package instead of this, as minimist-lite will only get security updates in the future, no further
development is to be expected!

more info here: https://github.com/meszaros-lajos-gyorgy/minimist-lite/issues/27

---

## Installation

With [npm](https://npmjs.org) do:

```sh
npm install minimist-lite
```

With [yarn](https://yarnpkg.com/) do:

```sh
yarn add minimist-lite
```

## License

MIT License. See [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.

## Examples

See [example/parse.js](example/parse.js):

```js
var argv = require('minimist-lite')(process.argv.slice(2));

console.log(argv);
```

Running `node example/parse.js` with arguments shows how they are parsed
by minimist:

### No arguments

With no arguments minimist returns an object with a single key "\_" (underscore)
with a value of an empty array:

```
$ node example/parse.js
{ _: [] }
```

### Arguments without dashes

Using arguments with no dashes adds them to the "\_" array in the object
returned by minimist:

```
$ node example/parse.js abc def
{ _: [ 'abc', 'def' ] }
```

### Single-letter options

A single dash starts a single-letter option that are boolean by default:

```
$ node example/parse.js -a -b -c
{ _: [], a: true, b: true, c: true }
```

Single-letter options can be joined together:

```
$ node example/parse.js -abc
{ _: [], a: true, b: true, c: true }
```

When a single-letter option is followed by a value with no dashes, the option
gets that value in the returned object instead of a boolean value:

```
$ node example/parse.js -a beep -b boop
{ _: [], a: 'beep', b: 'boop' }
```

Numeric values can be joined with single-letter options:

```
$ node example/parse.js -a 1 -b2
{ _: [], a: 1, b: 2 }
```

### Multi-letter options

Multi-letter options start with double dashes and they are boolean by default:

```
$ node example/parse.js --abc --def
{ _: [], abc: true, def: true }
```

Values can follow multi-letter options after a space or equal sign:

```
$ node example/parse.js --abc 1 --def=2
{ _: [], abc: 1, def: 2 }
```

#### `--no-` prefix handling

Options with the prefix `--no-` will be treated as a flag that has the value `false` by default:

```
$ node example/parse.js --no-abc
{ _: [], abc: false }

$ node example/parse.js --no-abc true
{ _: ['true'], abc: false }
```

### Mixed styles

All of those styles can be used together:

```
$ node example/parse.js -x 3 -y 4 -n5 -abc --beep=boop --hoo:haa foo bar baz
{ _: [ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ],
  x: 3,
  y: 4,
  n: 5,
  a: true,
  b: true,
  c: true,
  hoo: [haa],
  beep: 'boop' }
```

The default parsing of the arguments can be changed by using the second
argument to the parsing method, see below.

### Repeated options

If an option is provided more than once, the returned object value for that
option will be an array (rather than a boolean or a string):

```
$ node example/parse.js --foo=bar --foo=baz
{ _: [], foo: [ 'bar', 'baz' ] }
```

## Methods

Minimist exports a single method:

```js
var parseArgs = require('minimist-lite');
```

## var argv = parseArgs(args, opts={})

Return an argument object `argv` populated with the array arguments from `args`.

`argv._` contains all the arguments that didn't have an option associated with
them, or an empty array if there were no such arguments.

Numeric-looking arguments will be returned as numbers unless `opts.string` or
`opts.boolean` is set for that argument name.

Any arguments after `'--'` will not be parsed and will end up in `argv._`.

## Options

options can be:

- `opts.string` - a string or array of strings with argument names to always
  treat as strings
- `opts.array` - a string or array of strings argument names to always treat as
  array values
- `opts.boolean` - a boolean, string or array of strings to always treat as
  booleans. if `true` will treat all double hyphenated arguments without equal signs
  as boolean (e.g. affects `--foo`, not `-f` or `--foo=bar`)
- `opts.alias` - an object mapping string names to strings or arrays of string
  argument names to use as aliases
- `opts.default` - an object mapping string argument names to default values
- `opts.stopEarly` - when true, populate `argv._` with everything after the
  first non-option
- `opts['--']` - when true, populate `argv._` with everything before the `--`
  and `argv['--']` with everything after the `--`. Here's an example:

  ```
  > require('./')('one two three -- four five --six'.split(' '), { '--': true })
  { _: [ 'one', 'two', 'three' ],
    '--': [ 'four', 'five', '--six' ] }
  ```

  Note that with `opts['--']` set, parsing for arguments still stops after the
  `--`.

- `opts.unknown` - a function which is invoked with a command line parameter not
  defined in the `opts` configuration object. If the function returns `false`, the
  unknown option is not added to `argv`.

---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/minimist-lite · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._