CLI reference

The @dtifx/cli package publishes the dtifx binary. It registers the diff, build, and audit command modules with a shared kernel, providing consistent IO, telemetry, and error handling. This reference lists every command and option.

Programmatic APIs

In addition to the dtifx executable, the CLI package exports utilities for embedding the command modules inside other Node.js applications. These helpers wire the same Commander configuration and IO abstractions used by the binary, so downstream hosts receive identical parsing, telemetry, and error handling behaviour.

Kernel factory

createCliKernel(options) constructs a Commander-backed kernel that can register one or more CliCommandModule instances and run them against an arbitrary argument vector.

Option	Type	Description
programName	string	Display name for --help output and diagnostics.
version	string	Printed when callers pass --version.
description	string?	Optional help banner text.
io	CliIo?	Custom IO abstraction. Defaults to createProcessCliIo().

The kernel exposes two methods:

• register(module) registers a command module and returns the kernel for chaining.
• run(argv?) parses and executes the configured Commander program. When argv is omitted the current process arguments are used. The promise resolves to the exit code that should be returned to the caller after accounting for process.exitCode mutations inside handlers.

When run throws, the kernel normalises errors into formatted output on stderr, preserving any exit code Commander or the module already configured.

Context and global options

Registered modules receive a CliKernelContext with two capabilities:

• io provides direct access to the resolved CliIo implementation. Modules can read from stdin, write formatted output, or forward exit codes without depending on Node globals.
• getGlobalOptions() returns the current CliGlobalOptions (telemetry preference and log format) resolved from kernel-wide flags.

These helpers allow modules to tailor their behaviour based on user preferences without re-parsing flags.

IO abstraction

createProcessCliIo(options?) adapts a NodeJS.Process into the CliIo contract. It exposes the standard streams, provides convenience writers (writeOut, writeErr), and wraps process.exit to respect any pre-existing non-zero exit code. Pass a custom process instance (such as a mocked object in tests) via options.process when embedding the CLI in environments without access to the real process globals.

Command modules

The CLI ships reusable CliCommandModule instances for diff, build, and audit workflows:

• diffCommandModule
• buildCommandModule
• auditCommandModule

Each module registers its subcommands, flags, and help content when invoked with a Commander Command and the shared kernel context. Consumers can pair them with their own kernel or supplement them with bespoke modules to extend the binary.

Convenience kernels and runners

For common embed scenarios the package provides pre-wired kernel factories and runners:

• createDiffCliKernel(options) and runDiffCli(argv?)
• createBuildCliKernel(options) and runBuildCli(argv?)
• createAuditCliKernel(options) and runAuditCli(argv?)

The create*Kernel helpers call createCliKernel with appropriate metadata, register the matching command module, and return the configured kernel. The run*Cli functions run the same kernel and resolve with the resulting exit code, making it easy to proxy the CLI from another script.

import { createCliKernel, createProcessCliIo, diffCommandModule, runBuildCli } from '@dtifx/cli';

const kernel = createCliKernel({
  programName: 'custom-dtifx',
  version: '0.0.1',
  description: 'Toolkit embed for bespoke automation',
  io: createProcessCliIo(),
});

kernel.register(diffCommandModule);

// Run the embedded diff commands.
await kernel.run(['node', 'custom-dtifx', 'diff', 'compare', 'prev.json', 'next.json']);

// Or delegate to a pre-configured build workflow.
const exitCode = await runBuildCli(process.argv);
process.exit(exitCode);

Because the runners return a numeric exit status instead of exiting directly, hosts can decide how to propagate failures or aggregate multiple CLI invocations inside a single process.

Global behaviour

• Running dtifx without arguments prints a hint directing you to dtifx diff, dtifx build, or dtifx audit.
• Non-interactive build subcommands (validate, generate, inspect) and audit runs set process.exitCode = 1 when runtimes fail so callers can detect errors. dtifx build watch logs failures but keeps the session alive for the next rebuild. Diff commands throw CommanderError instances so the kernel returns a non-zero status when input validation fails or failure policies trigger.

Kernel global options

• --telemetry <mode> (default: auto)
  • Records the preferred telemetry usage for command modules. Accepts auto, on (aliases: enable, enabled), or off (aliases: disable, disabled). Built-in workflows expose dedicated telemetry flags under their respective subcommands.
• --json-logs
  • Switches the kernel log format preference to JSON. Build and audit commands honour this through their --json-logs options, while other integrations can read the preference via context.getGlobalOptions().

dtifx diff

Top-level

• --version
  • Prints the installed version of @dtifx/diff and exits.

Without subcommands the CLI prints help.

dtifx diff compare [previous] [next]

Output and formatting

• --format <format> (default: cli)
  • Output format. Accepts cli, json, markdown, html, yaml, sarif, or template.
• --output <file>
  • Writes the rendered report to the specified file.
• --template <file>
  • Handlebars template to use with --format template (required in that mode).
• --template-unsafe-no-escape
  • Disables Handlebars HTML escaping when rendering templates. Only enable this for trusted templates and payloads because unescaped output can introduce cross-site scripting or injection issues.
• --template-partial <name=path>
  • Repeatable partial registration for template rendering.

Warning: Handlebars escapes token values by default. Only use --template-unsafe-no-escape when the template and diff data are fully trusted; disabling escaping can allow injection attacks in rendered output.

• --color / --no-color (default: auto)
  • Forces coloured output on or off (defaults to TTY detection).
• --unicode / --no-unicode (default: auto)
  • Forces Unicode glyphs or ASCII fallbacks.
• --no-links (default: auto)
  • Disables terminal hyperlinks even when supported.
• --quiet (default: false)
  • Suppresses parser and reporting diagnostics.

Filtering and verbosity

• --mode <condensed\|full\|summary> (default: condensed)
  • Controls report depth. --summary is a shortcut for --mode summary. condensed hides the Top risks section and truncates pointer context to the first entry per list.
• --summary (default: false)
  • Enables summary mode. Mutually exclusive with --mode values other than summary.
• --verbose (default: false)
  • Includes extended metadata and raw diff snippets.
• --why (default: false)
  • Explains why each change appears.
• --diff-context <n> (default: 3)
  • Number of pointer entries to include in context lists (allows zero).
• --top-risks <n> (default: 5)
  • Maximum high-risk entries shown in summaries (allows zero).
• --filter-type <type>
  • Repeatable or comma-separated $type filter.
• --filter-path <pointer>
  • Repeatable JSON pointer prefix filter.
• --filter-group <prefix>
  • Repeatable token group filter.
• --filter-impact <impact>
  • Filters by change impact. Accepts breaking or non-breaking.
• --filter-kind <kind>
  • Filters by change kind (added, removed, changed, renamed plus synonyms).
• --only-breaking (default: false)
  • Shortcut for --filter-impact breaking; incompatible with other impact values.

Failure policies

• --fail-on-breaking (default: false)
  • Exit code 1 when breaking changes are detected. --no-fail-on-breaking disables it.
• --fail-on-changes (default: false)
  • Exit code 1 when any change is detected. --no-fail-on-changes disables it.

Custom strategies and loading

• --rename-strategy <module>
  • Bare package name, filesystem path, or file: URL exporting a rename detection strategy. Other URL schemes are rejected.
• --impact-strategy <module>
  • Bare package name, filesystem path, or file: URL exporting an impact classification strategy. Other URL schemes are rejected.
• --summary-strategy <module>
  • Bare package name, filesystem path, or file: URL exporting a summary strategy. Other URL schemes are rejected.

Exit codes

• 0 – Completed successfully and failure policies passed.
• 1 – Failure policies triggered (--fail-on-*), invalid CLI input, or runtime errors surfaced by Commander.

dtifx build

Build command options

• -c, --config <path> (default: nearest dtifx.config.*)
  • Configuration module location.
• --out-dir <path> (default: dist)
  • Fallback formatter output directory.
• --reporter <format> (default: human)
  • Reporter format. Accepts human, json, markdown, or html.
• --json-logs (default: false)
  • Emits NDJSON structured logs.
• --timings (default: false)
  • Includes stage timings in reporter output.
• --telemetry <mode> (default: none)
  • Telemetry exporter. Accepts none or stdout.

dtifx build validate

Plans sources and prints the plan size. When planning fails the reporter logs diagnostics and the command sets process.exitCode = 1.

dtifx build generate

Executes the full pipeline (plan, resolve, transforms, formatters, dependencies, policies). If any stage throws the reporter logs the error and the command sets process.exitCode = 1.

dtifx build inspect

Additional options:

• -p, --pointer <jsonPointer>
  • Filters tokens by pointer prefix.
• -t, --type <tokenType>
  • Filters by resolved $type.
• --json
  • Emits JSON payload instead of human-readable output.

Runtime errors set process.exitCode = 1 before the command returns.

dtifx build watch

Watches for file changes and reruns the build. Uses ChokidarWatcher and SequentialTaskScheduler under the hood. Runs indefinitely until interrupted. Build failures are reported through the configured reporter, but the process remains active so the next change can retry. Rebuild reasons include the triggering source identifier, event type, and absolute path (for example design-tokens:created:/repo/tokens/button.json when a source with ID design-tokens emits a created event), plus configuration update when the config reloads.

dtifx audit

Global options mirror the build command (--config, --out-dir, --json-logs, --timings, --telemetry). --out-dir is accepted for parity but is not currently consumed by the audit runtime. --telemetry <mode> defaults to none and accepts either none or stdout, mirroring the build workflow defaults. Selecting stdout enables the OpenTelemetry console exporter so audit runs emit span summaries to standard output alongside reporter output, which is helpful for inspecting stage timings during local debugging.

dtifx audit run

• --reporter <format> (default: human)
  • Reporter format. Accepts human, json, markdown, or html. The option is repeatable; all unique formats render.

The command resolves tokens using the build-aware environment, executes policies, and prints a summary per reporter. When a policy reports at least one error severity result or the run throws, the command sets process.exitCode = 1 before returning.

Troubleshooting invalid flags

The CLI surfaces descriptive errors when options are malformed:

• Template partials must be declared as name=path.
• --diff-context and --top-risks must be non-negative integers.
• Combining --summary with --mode values other than summary raises a TypeError.

Correct the input and rerun the command; the runtime does not attempt to recover from invalid CLI usage.