Node.js Command Line Arguments

What is Command Line Arguments in Node.js?

process.argv holds the command-line arguments as an array: the Node executable, the script path, then anything the user typed. Node also ships a built-in parseArgs helper for flags.

Command Line Arguments example

// node backup.js --out ./dump --verbose
console.log(process.argv.slice(2));   // ['--out', './dump', '--verbose']

import { parseArgs } from 'node:util';

const { values } = parseArgs({
  options: {
    out:     { type: 'string',  short: 'o', default: './dump' },
    verbose: { type: 'boolean', short: 'v', default: false },
  },
});

console.log(values.out, values.verbose);

Key points to remember

• The first two entries are always the Node binary and the script path.
• parseArgs is built in — no dependency needed for simple CLIs.
• Use commander or yargs for complex tools with subcommands and help text.
• A "bin" entry in package.json makes a script installable as a command.