gentleduck/cli

CLI for initializing projects, adding components, managing themes, and updating with an interactive merge TUI.

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What this CLI does

Most component CLIs only add components. gentleduck/cli also updates them with an interactive merge, removes them cleanly, diffs them against the registry with syntax highlighting, and manages theme tokens.

The update command matters most. When you update a component you have modified locally, the CLI opens an interactive merge screen in your terminal. Each change appears as a hunk and you choose per-hunk what to keep:

Press 1 to keep your local version
Press 2 to take the registry version
Press 3 to keep both
Navigate with h/l between files, j/k between hunks
Press N/P to jump to the next/previous unresolved hunk
Preview the merged result before writing
Press Enter to confirm, Esc to abort

No git merge markers. No manual conflict resolution. No diff tool required.

Feature	gentleduck/cli	shadcn CLI
`init`	Yes	Yes
`add`	Yes	Yes
`diff` with TUI	Syntax-highlighted side-by-side view	Plain text diff
`update` with merge	Interactive hunk-by-hunk merge TUI	Not available
`remove`	Clean uninstall with dep cleanup	Not available
`list`	Filter by type, JSON output	Not available
`theme`	List, inspect, install themes from registry	Not available
Template scaffolding	`--template` flag for full project scaffold	Not available
Monorepo support	`--monorepo` flag, workspace-aware config	Not available

Install

bun add -D @gentleduck/cli
# or
npm install -D @gentleduck/cli

bun add -D @gentleduck/cli
# or
npm install -D @gentleduck/cli

Commands

Command	What it does
`init`	Initialize project config, optionally install components
`add`	Install components from the registry
`update`	Update installed components with the interactive merge TUI
`remove`	Remove components and clean up unused dependencies
`diff`	Show diffs between local copies and registry versions
`list`	List available components from the registry
`theme`	Manage theme tokens (list, info, add)

Each command has its own page with full options and examples.

Migration from shadcn CLI

The commands map directly:

# shadcn
npx shadcn@latest add button
npx shadcn@latest diff button
 
# gentleduck
npx @gentleduck/cli add button
npx @gentleduck/cli diff button

# shadcn
npx shadcn@latest add button
npx shadcn@latest diff button
 
# gentleduck
npx @gentleduck/cli add button
npx @gentleduck/cli diff button

After switching, you get update, remove, list, and theme, which shadcn does not provide. update with interactive merge lets teams pull upstream changes into customized components without losing local edits.