---

name: chalk-styling-system description: Create consistent chalk-based color and styling system for CLI output with themes, semantic colors, and formatting utilities. allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep graph: domains: [domain:software-engineering] specializations: [specialization:cli-mcp-development] skillAreas: [skill-area:cli-design, skill-area:command-line-interface-tools] roles: [role:backend-engineer, role:platform-engineer] workflows: [workflow:feature-development] topics: [topic:developer-experience]

---

Chalk Styling System

Create consistent chalk-based styling for CLI output.

Capabilities

• Create color theme systems
• Define semantic color utilities
• Set up text formatting helpers
• Implement conditional styling
• Create box and border utilities
• Generate styling documentation

Usage

Invoke this skill when you need to:

• Create consistent CLI color schemes
• Define semantic output styling
• Build formatting utilities
• Support multiple themes

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
language	string	Yes	Target language
theme	object	No	Custom color theme
utilities	array	No	Formatting utilities needed

Generated Patterns

TypeScript Styling System

import chalk, { ChalkInstance } from 'chalk';

// Theme definition
export interface Theme {
  primary: string;
  secondary: string;
  success: string;
  warning: string;
  error: string;
  info: string;
  muted: string;
}

const defaultTheme: Theme = {
  primary: '#3498db',
  secondary: '#9b59b6',
  success: '#2ecc71',
  warning: '#f39c12',
  error: '#e74c3c',
  info: '#00bcd4',
  muted: '#95a5a6',
};

// Create themed chalk instance
export function createTheme(theme: Partial<Theme> = {}): {
  primary: ChalkInstance;
  secondary: ChalkInstance;
  success: ChalkInstance;
  warning: ChalkInstance;
  error: ChalkInstance;
  info: ChalkInstance;
  muted: ChalkInstance;
} {
  const t = { ...defaultTheme, ...theme };
  return {
    primary: chalk.hex(t.primary),
    secondary: chalk.hex(t.secondary),
    success: chalk.hex(t.success),
    warning: chalk.hex(t.warning),
    error: chalk.hex(t.error),
    info: chalk.hex(t.info),
    muted: chalk.hex(t.muted),
  };
}

// Default styled outputs
export const style = createTheme();

// Semantic helpers
export const log = {
  success: (msg: string) => console.log(style.success('✓ ') + msg),
  error: (msg: string) => console.error(style.error('✗ ') + msg),
  warning: (msg: string) => console.log(style.warning('⚠ ') + msg),
  info: (msg: string) => console.log(style.info('ℹ ') + msg),
  debug: (msg: string) => console.log(style.muted('⋯ ') + msg),
};

// Text formatting
export const format = {
  bold: chalk.bold,
  dim: chalk.dim,
  italic: chalk.italic,
  underline: chalk.underline,
  strikethrough: chalk.strikethrough,
  code: (text: string) => chalk.bgGray.white(` ${text} `),
  link: (text: string, url: string) => chalk.blue.underline(text) + ` (${chalk.dim(url)})`,
};

// Box drawing
export function box(content: string, options?: {
  title?: string;
  padding?: number;
  borderColor?: string;
}): string {
  const lines = content.split('\n');
  const maxWidth = Math.max(...lines.map(l => l.length), options?.title?.length || 0);
  const padding = options?.padding || 1;
  const borderColor = options?.borderColor || '#888';
  const border = chalk.hex(borderColor);

  const horizontalBorder = border('─'.repeat(maxWidth + padding * 2 + 2));
  const emptyLine = border('│') + ' '.repeat(maxWidth + padding * 2) + border('│');

  const result: string[] = [];

  // Top border with optional title
  if (options?.title) {
    const titlePadding = Math.floor((maxWidth + padding * 2 - options.title.length) / 2);
    result.push(
      border('┌') +
      border('─'.repeat(titlePadding)) +
      ` ${options.title} ` +
      border('─'.repeat(maxWidth + padding * 2 - titlePadding - options.title.length - 2)) +
      border('┐')
    );
  } else {
    result.push(border('┌') + horizontalBorder.slice(1, -1) + border('┐'));
  }

  // Padding top
  for (let i = 0; i < padding; i++) {
    result.push(emptyLine);
  }

  // Content
  for (const line of lines) {
    result.push(
      border('│') +
      ' '.repeat(padding) +
      line.padEnd(maxWidth) +
      ' '.repeat(padding) +
      border('│')
    );
  }

  // Padding bottom
  for (let i = 0; i < padding; i++) {
    result.push(emptyLine);
  }

  // Bottom border
  result.push(border('└') + horizontalBorder.slice(1, -1) + border('┘'));

  return result.join('\n');
}

// Table formatting
export function table(
  headers: string[],
  rows: string[][],
  options?: { headerColor?: string }
): string {
  const headerColor = chalk.hex(options?.headerColor || '#3498db').bold;
  const colWidths = headers.map((h, i) =>
    Math.max(h.length, ...rows.map(r => (r[i] || '').length))
  );

  const headerRow = headers
    .map((h, i) => headerColor(h.padEnd(colWidths[i])))
    .join('  ');

  const separator = colWidths.map(w => '─'.repeat(w)).join('──');

  const dataRows = rows.map(row =>
    row.map((cell, i) => (cell || '').padEnd(colWidths[i])).join('  ')
  );

  return [headerRow, separator, ...dataRows].join('\n');
}

Dependencies

{
  "dependencies": {
    "chalk": "^5.0.0"
  }
}

Target Processes

• cli-output-formatting
• error-handling-user-feedback
• cli-application-bootstrap