Varu CLI (varucli)

A terminal-based development dashboard for managing and monitoring your Node.js projects.

Overview

Varu CLI is an interactive command-line interface built with React and Ink that helps developers manage multiple projects from a single dashboard. It provides a centralized view of all your projects, monitors running development servers, and offers quick access to common development tasks.

Features

• Project Management

  • Automatically scans and lists all projects in a configured directory
  • Quick navigation with vim-style keyboard shortcuts
  • Search and filter projects by name
  • Monitor running development servers in real-time

• Development Workflow

  • Start/stop development servers with a single keystroke
  • Open projects directly in nvim
  • Install dependencies via npm
  • Clone repositories with auto-detection from clipboard

• Node Modules Management

  • Scan and display node_modules folder sizes
  • Identify and cleanup stale node_modules
  • Track last project usage

• User Interface

  • Clean, terminal-based interface
  • Real-time process monitoring
  • Responsive design that adapts to terminal size
  • Built-in help system

Installation

npm install -g varucli

Or run directly with npx:

npx varucli

Usage

Start the dashboard:

varucli

On first run, you'll be prompted to configure the root directory where your projects are located.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

• j / ↓ - Move down
• k / ↑ - Move up
• gg - Jump to top (double-tap g)
• G - Jump to bottom

Actions

• Enter - Open project in nvim
• s - Start/stop development server
• c - Clone a repository (auto-detects git URLs from clipboard)
• I - Install npm dependencies
• / or i - Search/filter projects
• m - Scan node_modules sizes
• r - Refresh project list
• dd - Cleanup stale node_modules (double-tap d)

Other

• C - Open configuration
• ? - Show help
• q - Quit

Configuration

The application stores configuration in ~/.varucli-config.json. You can reconfigure at any time by pressing C in the main interface.

Configuration options:

• Project Path: Root directory to scan for projects
• Projects are identified by the presence of package.json files

Project Structure

src/
├── App.js              # Main application component
├── index.js            # Entry point
├── commands/           # Command implementations
│   ├── clone-repo.js
│   ├── process-monitor.js
│   ├── project-scanner.js
│   └── run-command.js
├── components/         # UI components
├── hooks/              # React hooks for state management
└── utils/              # Utility functions

Development

Build the project:

npm run build

Run in development mode:

npm run dev

Start the application:

npm start

How It Works

1. Project Scanning: Recursively scans the configured directory for package.json files
2. Process Monitoring: Detects running development servers by monitoring processes
3. Command Execution: Executes commands in new terminal windows for interactive workflows
4. State Management: Uses React hooks for managing application state and side effects

Requirements

• Node.js (version with ESM support)
• Terminal with ANSI color support
• Git (for cloning repositories)

Version

Current version: 0.0.11

License

See package.json for license information.