initphp/console

A simple helper library for writing console/CLI applications in PHP, including a styleable ANSI table renderer (formerly initphp/cli-table).

2.1.1 2026-05-29 14:30 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.2

Requires (Dev)

• phpstan/phpstan: ^1.11
• phpunit/phpunit: ^8.5 || ^9.6 || ^10.5
• squizlabs/php_codesniffer: ^3.7

Suggests

• ext-mbstring: Improves table column alignment for multibyte (UTF-8) cell values.

Replaces

• initphp/cli-table: *

MIT

• Muhammet ŞAFAK

• cli
• console
• command
• command-line
• terminal
• table
• ansi
• initphp

README

A small, dependency-free helper library for writing console / CLI applications in PHP — command routing, typed arguments, coloured output, interactive questions and a styleable ANSI table renderer.

Starting with 2.1 this package also ships the ANSI table renderer that used to be distributed as the separate initphp/cli-table package (now deprecated). See Migrating from initphp/cli-table.

Features

• Command routing — register commands as closures or as classes extending Command.
• Grouped help — automatic help / list overview and per-command --help usage.
• Typed arguments — declare --name arguments with a type (INT, FLOAT, BOOL, …), a default and an optional/required flag; values are validated automatically.
• Input parsing — long arguments (--name=value), short options (-v, -abc, -k=value) and bare positional segments, with automatic scalar type casting.
• Coloured output — 16/256-colour SGR helpers, message styles (error, success, warning, info), key/value lists and a progress bar.
• Interactive prompts — free-form ask() and option-constrained question().
• Table rendering — a styleable, multibyte-aware ASCII/ANSI table.
• Testable I/O — output and input streams are injectable, so commands can be unit tested without touching STDOUT/STDIN.

Requirements

• PHP 7.2 or higher
• ext-mbstring (optional) — improves table alignment for multibyte (UTF-8) values

Installation

composer require initphp/console

Quick start

Create an entry script (e.g. console.php):

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use InitPHP\Console\{Application, Input, Output};

$console = new Application('My Console Application', '1.0.0');

// A closure command:  php console.php hello --name=John
$console->register('hello', function (Input $input, Output $output) {
    $output->writeln('Hello {name}!', [
        'name' => $input->getArgument('name', 'World'),
    ]);
}, 'Says hello.');

$console->run();

Run it:

php console.php hello --name=John   # Hello John!
php console.php hello               # Hello World!
php console.php list                # Show all registered commands

Terminology

This library distinguishes three kinds of tokens that follow the command name:

Token	Shape	Accessor
Argument	--name, --name=value	getArgument()
Option	-v, -abc, -key=value	getOption()
Segment	bare value, e.g. migrate	getSegment()

Note: here --long tokens are called arguments and -short tokens are called options. This is the opposite of some other frameworks — keep it in mind when porting code.

All scalar values are cast automatically: "true"/"false"/"yes"/"no" → bool, "null" → null, integer/decimal strings → int/float.

Class-based commands

For anything beyond a one-liner, extend Command:

use InitPHP\Console\{Command, Input, InputArgument, Output};

class GreetCommand extends Command
{
    public $command = 'app:greet';

    public function definition(): string
    {
        return 'Greets a person.';
    }

    public function help(): string
    {
        return 'Prints a friendly greeting to the given name.';
    }

    public function arguments(): array
    {
        return [
            new InputArgument('name', InputArgument::STR, 'World', true, 'Who to greet.'),
        ];
    }

    public function execute(Input $input, Output $output)
    {
        $output->success('Hi ' . $input->getArgument('name'));
    }
}

$console->register(GreetCommand::class);

Declared arguments() are validated before execute() runs: missing required arguments or values that do not match the declared type abort the command with an error.

php console.php app:greet --name=Ada
php console.php app:greet --help        # shows the generated usage + parameters

Output

$output->writeln('Plain line');
$output->writeln('Coloured', [], [Output::COLOR_GREEN, Output::BOLD]);
$output->write('No newline; {token} interpolated', ['token' => 42]);

$output->error('Something failed');
$output->success('All good');
$output->warning('Heads up');
$output->info('FYI');

$output->list(['host' => 'localhost', 'port' => 8080]);

for ($i = 0; $i <= 100; $i += 10) {
    $output->progressBar($i, 100);
    usleep(50_000);
}

Interactive prompts

$name = $output->ask('What is your name?');

use InitPHP\Console\Question;

$question = (new Question())
    ->setQuestion('Continue? (yes/no)')
    ->setOptions(['yes', 'no'])
    ->optional()
    ->setDefault('no');

$answer = $output->question($question);

Typing exit or quit at any prompt terminates the application.

Rendering tables

use InitPHP\Console\Utils\Table;

$table = Table::create()
    ->setHeaderStyle(Table::COLOR_RED, Table::BOLD)
    ->setBorderStyle(Table::COLOR_BLUE)
    ->setCellStyle(Table::COLOR_GREEN);

$table->row(['id' => 1, 'name' => 'Matthew S.', 'email' => '[e-mail]', 'status' => true])
      ->row(['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Millie J.',  'email' => '[e-mail]',  'status' => false]);

echo $table; // or $table->getContent()

Non-string cell values are stringified ([NULL], [TRUE], [FALSE], [ARRAY], [CALLABLE], [RESOURCE], or the class name for objects), columns are auto-sized, and mb_strlen() is used when available so multibyte values align correctly.

Documentation

In-depth, example-driven guides live in docs/:

1. Getting started
2. Commands
3. Input: arguments, options & segments
4. Typed input arguments
5. Output & formatting
6. Interactive questions
7. Tables
8. Migrating from initphp/cli-table

Migrating from initphp/cli-table

The standalone initphp/cli-table package has been merged into this one as of 2.1 and is now deprecated.

If your code uses \InitPHP\CLITable\Table, no source changes are required — this package ships a class_alias keeping the old fully-qualified name working. Just switch the dependency:

- "initphp/cli-table": "^1.0",
+ "initphp/console": "^2.1"

(initphp/console declares a Composer replace for initphp/cli-table, so the two will never be installed side by side.) When you next touch the code, prefer the canonical namespace:

// Before
use InitPHP\CLITable\Table;
// After
use InitPHP\Console\Utils\Table;

The alias is a transition aid and may be removed in a future major release. See the migration guide for details.

Testing & quality

composer test     # PHPUnit
composer cs       # PHP_CodeSniffer (PSR-12)
composer stan     # PHPStan (level 6)
composer qa       # all of the above

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please run composer qa before opening a pull request. See the organisation contributing guidelines.

Credits

• Muhammet ŞAFAK <[e-mail]>

License

Released under the MIT License. Copyright © 2022 InitPHP.