Prompts Laravel Package

Product Decisions This Supports

• CLI/DevTool UX Enhancement: Accelerate adoption of internal CLI tools (e.g., deployment scripts, migrations, or admin commands) by replacing clunky readline()/fgets() prompts with polished, browser-like forms. Reduces friction for non-technical users (e.g., ops teams, marketers) interacting with CLI tools.
• Build vs. Buy: Buy—avoids reinventing wheel for interactive CLI forms. Prioritize this over custom solutions if:
  • Your team lacks bandwidth to maintain a robust prompt library.
  • You need cross-platform consistency (Windows/Linux/macOS).
  • Validation/UX features (e.g., autocomplete, multiselect) are critical.
• Roadmap Priorities:
  • Phase 1: Integrate into existing Artisan commands (e.g., php artisan deploy) to standardize user input flows.
  • Phase 2: Build a "CLI Admin Panel" for non-developers (e.g., content managers triggering workflows via CLI).
  • Phase 3: Replace legacy Bash/Python scripts with PHP-based tools using Prompts for uniformity.
• Use Cases:
  • Data Collection: Surveys, configuration wizards (e.g., php artisan setup:env).
  • Approval Workflows: CLI-based "Are you sure?" prompts with rich feedback (e.g., php artisan migrate --confirm).
  • Debugging Tools: Interactive debuggers or log analyzers with dynamic filtering.
  • CI/CD Pipelines: Pre-deployment prompts for environment variables or rollback decisions.

When to Consider This Package

Adopt if:

• Your CLI tools require user input beyond simple y/n (e.g., forms, multi-step workflows).
• You need cross-platform compatibility (Windows/Linux/macOS) without terminal-specific hacks.
• Validation/UX is critical (e.g., autocomplete, real-time feedback, conditional logic).
• Your team uses Laravel or PHP CLI tools and wants to avoid vendor lock-in (MIT license).
• You’re building internal tools where UX directly impacts adoption (e.g., dev tools, admin scripts).

Look elsewhere if:

• You need minimal dependencies (Prompts requires Symfony components).
• Your use case is trivial (e.g., single-line readline() inputs).
• You’re targeting embedded systems or non-PHP environments.
• You require highly customized terminal rendering (e.g., ANSI escape codes for niche displays).
• Your team prefers Rust/Go for CLI tools (e.g., using bubbletea or cobra).

How to Pitch It (Stakeholders)

For Executives: "Laravel Prompts lets us turn clunky CLI tools into polished, user-friendly experiences—like a browser form in the terminal. For example, instead of asking ops teams to manually edit YAML files or guess flags for deployments, we can build a guided workflow. This reduces errors, speeds up onboarding, and cuts support costs. It’s a low-code way to add professional-grade UX to internal tools without building a full web app. Think of it as ‘Figma for the command line’—but for our own scripts."

Key Metrics to Highlight:

• Developer Velocity: Reduces time spent maintaining custom prompt logic.
• User Adoption: Higher engagement for CLI tools (e.g., fewer abandoned deployments).
• Cost: Free (MIT license), maintained by Laravel’s team, and integrates seamlessly with existing PHP codebases.

For Engineers: *"Prompts gives us a battle-tested, feature-rich way to handle interactive CLI input—no more hacking together readline() calls or parsing fgets(). Key features:

• Browser-like UX: Placeholders, validation, autocomplete, and multiselect.
• Laravel Integration: Works natively with Artisan commands and Laravel’s dependency injection.
• Cross-Platform: Handles Windows/Linux/macOS edge cases (e.g., PHP_EOL, terminal resizing).
• Extensible: Supports custom prompts (e.g., DataTable, Task, Stream) and conditional logic. Example use case: Replace our ad-hoc while loops for user confirmation with a confirm() prompt that includes dynamic context (e.g., ‘Deploy to staging? [y/N] (Affects 3 services)’).*

Migration Path:

1. Pilot: Replace 1–2 critical Artisan commands (e.g., php artisan deploy) with Prompts.
2. Standardize: Enforce Prompts for all new CLI tools to avoid fragmentation.
3. Enhance: Use advanced features like FormStep for multi-page workflows or DataTable for interactive data review.

Risk Mitigation:

• Dependency: Prompts is lightweight (~1MB) and uses Symfony components already in Laravel.
• Learning Curve: Minimal—similar to Laravel’s Blade or Livewire for CLI.
• Fallback: Supports non-interactive mode for CI/CD pipelines.