Building a CLI Tool with Node.js: From Zero to npm A step-by-step guide to building, testing, and publishing a command-line tool. Why Build a CLI? Solves YOUR problem (automate repetitive tasks) Portfolio piece (shows you can ship complete tools) Potential income (people pay for useful CLIs) Fun to build (instant gratification — no UI needed) What We'll Build A jsonfmt tool that formats JSON files in place: $ cat messy.json { "name" : "Alex" , "age" :30, "skills" :[ "js" , "python" ]} $ jsonfmt messy.json $ cat messy.json { "name" : "Alex" , "age" : 30, "skills" : [ "js" , "python" ] } Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Step 1: Project Setup mkdir jsonfmt && cd jsonfmt npm init -y # Install dependencies npm install commander chalk fs-extra # Install dev dependencies npm install -D jest typescript @types/node tsup Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode // package.json { "name" : "jsonfmt" , "version" : "1.0.0" , "description" : "Format JSON files beautifully" , "type" : "module" , // ESM…