Prompts does not handle stdin redirection correctly
Author: venomdevCreated Feb 22, 2025Updated Feb 22, 2025
Describe the bug
When running a script that uses prompts it can not accept a stdin redirection from a file. The file will be read but prompts ignores the new lines so that the whole file is used as the input to the first prompt only.
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
- Create a script that accepts multiple text inputs (prompts-test.js)
const prompts = require('prompts');
async function run() {
const response = await prompts([
{
type: 'text',
name: 'name',
message: 'What is your project name?',
initial: 'my-project',
},
{
type: 'text',
name: 'description',
message: 'What is your project description?',
initial: 'My project description',
}
]);
console.log('User entered:', response);
}
run().catch(e => {
console.error(e);
process.exit(1);
});- Create a text file with answers to the prompt questions (project.txt)
My test project
A test project using prompts- Run the script with redirection from the text file
node prompts-test.js < project.txtExpected behavior
The script should accept each line from the text file as an answer to the single prompt and then show the response as an object on the console.
✔ What is your project name? … My test project
✔ What is your project description? … A test project using prompts
User entered: {
name: 'My test project',
description: 'A test project using prompts'
}The actual result is that the script does not finish, does not show the console message, and does not trigger the catch exception function.
node prompts-test.js < project.txt
✔ What is your project name? … My test projectA test project using prompts
? What is your project description? › My project description% System
- OS: Linux 6.8.0-53-generic x86_64
- Terminal: zsh 5.9
- Node version: v22.13.0
Additional context
The redirection to accept input from text files would be a great benefit to automate initializing projects using scripts and without waiting for user input.
Source: terkelg/prompts