packi

Smart CLI package installer for Node.js

Install all your npm dependencies from a requirements.txt in one command — with fuzzy-match suggestions, progress tracking, and a community-powered package database.

Features

| Feature | Description | |---|---| | requirements.txt support | List your packages the Python way — one per line | | Fuzzy search & suggestions | Typo in a package name? packi finds the closest match | | Progress bar | Real-time installation progress displayed in your terminal | | Community package database | A local database (exists.txt) grows with contributions from users | | Persistent config | One-time contribution preference saved in .package-installer-config.json | | Alternative installer | When a package fails, choose an alternative from suggestions interactively | | Zero native deps | Only one runtime dependency: string-similarity |

How it works

flowchart TD
    A[🖥️ Run: npx packi] --> B[📂 Read requirements.txt]
    B --> C{File exists?}
    C -- No --> D[❌ Show creation instructions]
    C -- Yes --> E[📖 Parse package list]
    E --> F[🗄️ Load package database\nexists.txt]
    F --> G[🔄 For each package...]
    G --> H[⬇️ npm install package]
    H --> I{Install OK?}
    I -- Yes --> J[✅ Verify installation]
    J --> K{In database?}
    K -- No --> L{User contributes?}
    L -- Yes --> M[➕ Add to exists.txt]
    L -- No --> N[⏭️ Next package]
    M --> N
    K -- Yes --> N
    I -- No --> O[🔍 Fuzzy search similar packages]
    O --> P{Similar found?}
    P -- Yes --> Q[💡 Show suggestions]
    Q --> R{User selects one?}
    R -- Yes --> H
    R -- No --> S[❌ Skip — log failure]
    P -- No --> S
    S --> N
    N --> T{More packages?}
    T -- Yes --> G
    T -- No --> U[ Show summary report]

Installation

Use without installing (recommended for one-time use)

npx packi

Install globally

npm install -g packi

Install locally in a project

npm install packi

Usage

1. Create your requirements.txt

You can create the file manually:

express
lodash
axios
chalk
dotenv

One package name per line. Lines starting with # are treated as comments. The format package@version is also supported.

Or use packi freeze to generate it automatically from your project:

packi freeze
# or
npx packi freeze

This scans your package.json and installed node_modules to produce a requirements.txt — similar to Python's pip freeze.

Note: If requirements.txt doesn't exist when you run packi, it will be auto-generated from package.json if available.

2. Run packi

packi
# or
npx packi

3. Watch the magic

=== Début de l'installation ===
Nombre total de packages à installer: 3

[14:22:01] 📍 Chargement de la base de données des packages

   Tentative d'installation de express
  express installé avec succès

[████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 33.3%

   Tentative d'installation de lodash
  lodash installé avec succès

[████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 66.7%

...

=== Résumé de l'installation ===
  Durée totale: 8.42 secondes
 Packages installés avec succès: 3
 Échecs d'installation: 0

Configuration

packi creates a .package-installer-config.json in your working directory to remember your contribution preference:

{
  "willContribute": true,
  "gms": "npm"
}

| Key | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | willContribute | boolean | Whether to add newly installed packages to the shared database | | gms | string | Package manager to use (currently npm) |

Why use packi?

One command to install everything

No more copy-pasting package names one by one. List them all in requirements.txt and let packi handle the rest.

Fuzzy matching saves you from typos

Made a mistake?

axois   # typo!

packi detects the error and suggests:

  Échec de l'installation de axois
  Suggestions de packages similaires:
   1. axios (2,500,000 téléchargements) - Similarité: 83.3%
   2. axos  (12,000 téléchargements)   - Similarité: 57.1%

Community-powered package database

Every time you install a new package, you can add it to the local database. Over time, the suggestion engine gets smarter for your whole team.

Full visibility

See exactly what's happening at every step, with timestamps, progress bars, and a final summary.

Project structure

packInstaller/
├── index.js                         #  Main CLI entry point
├── exists.txt                       #  Community package database
├── requirements.txt                 #  Your packages to install (user-created)
├── .package-installer-config.json  #  Persistent user config (auto-generated)
├── package.json                     #  npm module metadata
└── README.md                        #  This file

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m "feat: add my feature"
4. Push: git push origin feat/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request on GitHub

Contact

| Channel | Link | |---|---| | Email | [email protected] | | GitHub | github.com/ThorLex | | Issues | github.com/ThorLex/packInstaller/issues | | npm | npmjs.com/package/packi |

License

MIT © Bekono Beyas Ambroise (ThorLex)

Made with ❤️ by ThorLex · [email protected]