Can I use prompts to ask for a file path?

[gsabran]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

Can I use prompts to ask for a file path? I know that I can prompt for a text, but the user would not get path autocompletion as they'll usually get in the terminal.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like to use prompts to ask for a filepath.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I can use the text or autocomplete prompt, but this doesn't seem to give useful autocompletion based on existing files and directories to the user.

[DadiBit]

You can use fs.access as an async function for the validate method. If you need to verify more information you can use fs.stat. While this is fairly easy to implement, a bigger issue is the autocompletion. In the past days I tried to come up with some code but I couldn't make it work with absolute AND relative paths. The path module abstract paths to URLs, trimming the separator at the end with path.resolve('/nice/path/') but not with path.normalize('/nice/path/'), therefor it might be better to implement a function without its use.

[LordParsley]

Taking @DadiBit's suggestion, I got a simple version working like so:

const { filepath } = await prompts([
    {
        type: 'text',
        name: 'filepath',
        message: 'Please enter your [relative] path?',
        format: value => path.resolve(__dirname, value),
        validate: async value =>
            (await fs.access(value).catch(() => false)) === undefined
    }
]);

Here, fs.access fulfills with undefined upon success.

[alexrusselldev]

Implemented something similar in my application using fs.exists.

Would love to see a path type with autocompletion.

 {
    type: 'text',
    name: 'path',
    message: 'Please enter a path for your file.',
    validate: (value) => {
      const exists = fs.existsSync(value);

      if (!exists) return 'Please enter a valid file path.';
      return true;
    },

[DadiBit]

Making @alexrusselldev solution one line:

validate: value => fs.existsSync(value) ||  'Please enter a valid file path.',