Enhanced CLI features: interactive mode, watch mode, and batch processing #165
Description
Hey team,
The CLI is already pretty solid, but there are a few workflow improvements that could make it way more useful for daily development and batch processing scenarios.
Ideas for enhancements
Interactive mode
- Start a REPL-like session for quick conversions
- Paste JSON, get TOON output immediately
- Great for experimentation and learning the format
Watch mode
- Monitor files/directories for changes
- Auto-convert when source files are modified
- Useful for development workflows
Batch processing improvements
- Process entire directory trees recursively
- Parallel processing for multiple files
- Progress bars for long operations
- Resume capability for interrupted batch jobs
Better output control
- Choose output format (pretty-printed, minified, etc.)
- Custom delimiter preferences
- Dry-run mode to preview changes
- Verbose mode showing token savings
Example usage
# Interactive mode
toon --interactive
# Watch mode
toon watch ./src --output ./dist --format toon
# Batch with progress
toon convert ./data/**/*.json --parallel --progress
# Dry run
toon convert input.json --dry-run --verboseImplementation
Could extend the existing CLI structure:
- Add new commands using the citty framework
- Reuse existing conversion logic
- Add file watching with chokidar
- Progress bars with cli-progress
Why this would be helpful
- Make TOON more practical for build pipelines
- Better developer experience for experimentation
- Handle large-scale data conversion projects
- Reduce friction for adopting TOON in existing workflows
The current CLI already handles the core use cases well. These additions would make it more powerful for production scenarios and daily development.
Anyone have other CLI features they'd find useful?