Added

• support for groups of options and commands in the help using low-level .helpGroup() on Option and Command, and higher
  -level .optionsGroup() and .commandsGroup() which can be used in chaining way to specify group title for following option
  s/commands (#2328)
• support for unescaped negative numbers as option-arguments and command-arguments (#2339)
• TypeScript: add parseArg property to Argument class (#2359)

Fixed

• remove bogus leading space in help when option has default value but not a description (#2348)
• .configureOutput() now makes copy of settings instead of modifying in-place, fixing side-effects (#2350)

Changed

• Breaking: Commander 14 requires Node.js v20 or higher
• internal refactor of Help class adding .formatItemList() and .groupItems() methods (#2328)

Added

• support a pair of long option flags to allow a memorable shortened flag, like .option('--ws, --workspace') (#2312)

Added

• support multiple calls to .parse() with default settings (#2299)
• add .saveStateBeforeParse() and .restoreStateBeforeParse() for use by subclasses (#2299)
• style routines like styleTitle() to add color to help using .configureHelp() or Help subclass (#2251)
• color related support in .configureOutput() for getOutHasColors(), getErrHasColors(), and stripColor() (#2251)
• Help property for minWidthToWrap (#2251)
• Help methods for displayWidth(), boxWrap(), preformatted() et al (#2251)

Changed

• Breaking: excess command-arguments cause an error by default, see migration tips (#2223)
• Breaking: throw during Option construction for unsupported option flags, like multiple characters after single - (#2270)
• Breaking: throw on multiple calls to .parse() if storeOptionsAsProperties: true (#2299)
• TypeScript: include implicit this in parameters for action handler callback (#2197)

Deleted

• Breaking: Help.wrap() refactored into formatItem() and boxWrap() (#2251)

Migration Tips

Excess command-arguments

It is now an error for the user to specify more command-arguments than are expected. (allowExcessArguments is now false by default.)

Old code:

program.option('-p, --port <number>', 'port number');
program.action((options) => {
  console.log(program.args);
});

Now shows an error:

$ node example.js a b c
error: too many arguments. Expected 0 arguments but got 3.

You can declare the expected arguments. The help will then be more accurate too. Note that declaring
new arguments will change what is passed to the action handler.

program.option('-p, --port <number>', 'port number');
program.argument('[args...]', 'remote command and arguments'); // expecting zero or more arguments
program.action((args, options) => {
  console.log(args);
});

Or you could suppress the error, useful for minimising changes in legacy code.

program.option('-p, --port', 'port number');
program.allowExcessArguments();
program.action((options) => {
  console.log(program.args);
});

Added

• style routines like styleTitle() to add color to help using .configureHelp() or Help subclass (#2251)
• color related support in .configureOutput() for getOutHasColors(), getErrHasColors(), and stripColor() (#2251)
• Help property for minWidthToWrap (#2251)
• Help methods for displayWidth(), boxWrap(), preformatted() et al (#2251)

Changed

• Breaking: excess command-arguments cause an error by default, see migration tips (#2223)
• Breaking: throw during Option construction for unsupported option flags, like multiple characters after single - (#2270)
• TypeScript: include implicit this in parameters for action handler callback (#2197)

Deleted

• Breaking: Help.wrap() refactored into formatItem() and boxWrap() (#2251)

Migration Tips

Excess command-arguments

It is now an error for the user to specify more command-arguments than are expected. (allowExcessArguments is now false by default.)

Old code:

program.option('-p, --port <number>', 'port number');
program.action((options) => {
  console.log(program.args);
});

Now shows an error:

$ node example.js a b c
error: too many arguments. Expected 0 arguments but got 3.

You can declare the expected arguments. The help will then be more accurate too. Note that declaring
new arguments will change what is passed to the action handler.

program.option('-p, --port <number>', 'port number');
program.argument('[args...]', 'remote command and arguments'); // expecting zero or more arguments
program.action((args, options) => {
  console.log(args);
});

Or you could suppress the error, useful for minimising changes in legacy code.

program.option('-p, --port', 'port number');
program.allowExcessArguments();
program.action((options) => {
  console.log(program.args);
});

Added

• auto-detect special node flags node --eval and node --print when call .parse() with no arguments (#2164)

Changed

• prefix require of Node.js core modules with node: (#2170)
• format source files with Prettier (#2180)
• switch from StandardJS to directly calling ESLint for linting (#2153)
• extend security support for previous major version of Commander (#2150)

Removed

• removed unimplemented Option.fullDescription from TypeScript definition (#2191)