Set a default command

Sometimes you want a command to run automatically when the user doesn't type a subcommand — for example, running serve when they just call your tool. Use defineDefaultCommand.

import { Clipse } from "clipse";

const serve = new Clipse("serve", "start the dev server")
  .addOptions({ port: { short: "p", type: "string", default: "3000" } })
  .action((_args, opts) => {
    console.log(`listening on :${opts.port}`);
  });

new Clipse("app", "my app", "1.0.0")
  .addSubcommands([serve])
  .defineDefaultCommand(serve)
  .ready();

Now both invocations run serve:

$ app serve --port 8080
listening on :8080
$ app --port 8080
listening on :8080

How it resolves

When you call ready(), clipse dispatches in this order:

1. -h / --help → print help and exit.
2. -v / --version → print the version and exit.
3. First word matches a subcommand → run that subcommand.
4. First word is generate-completion → write the completion script to ~/.clipse.<name>.bash, source it from ~/.bashrc, and exit.
5. A default command is defined → run it with the remaining arguments.
6. Otherwise → run this command's own action.

So the default command is the fallback used whenever no subcommand matches — and also when the CLI is called with no arguments at all.

TIP

The default command receives the arguments untouched, so its own options and arguments are parsed as usual.