Getopts

Getopts is a lightweight drop-in replacement for minimist and similar CLI argument parsers. At roughly 180 lines of code with zero dependencies, it breaks up process.argv into a plain key-value object, following the POSIX/GNU utility conventions that most command-line tools already expect.

It supports short options, grouped short flags, long options, aliases, boolean coercion, string coercion, default values, and a stopEarly mode for passing through remaining arguments untouched. The project advertises up to 6x faster parsing than comparable libraries, making it a common choice for CLI tools that want minimist-style ergonomics without the dependency weight.

What You Get

• A single getopts(argv, options) function with no runtime dependencies
• Support for short options, grouped short flags (-ab => {a:true,b:true}), and long options
• Alias, boolean, string, and default-value configuration per option
• A stopEarly mode to stop parsing at the first operand and pass through the rest
• Both ESM (index.js) and CommonJS (index.cjs) builds

Common Use Cases

• Parsing arguments in a custom Node.js CLI tool without pulling in a heavier dependency
• Replacing minimist in an existing project for faster parsing with a compatible API shape
• Building small build scripts or task runners that need simple flag/option handling

Under The Hood

Architecture The entire library lives in a single index.js file (~180 lines) that exports one function. It walks the input argv array once, classifying each token as a short option, long option, or operand, and accumulates results into a plain object keyed by option name plus an _ array for positional operands. Tech Stack Zero runtime dependencies; the package ships both an ESM entry (index.js) and a generated CommonJS build (index.cjs) produced by a small build script in package.json, plus TypeScript type declarations (index.d.ts). Code Quality Test coverage is organized by feature area (tests/short.test.js, long.test.js, alias.test.js, boolean.test.js, stopEarly.test.js, unknown.test.js, etc.) using the twist test runner with c8 for coverage, giving each parsing rule its own focused test file. API Design The API is a single function call with a plain options object (alias, boolean, string, default, stopEarly, unknown), requiring no setup or class instantiation, which keeps integration into any CLI script to one line.