Node Tools

A modern, zero-dependency toolbox for Node.js — shipped as a friendly CLI (nt) and a small set of reusable utility functions.

Think of it like: the everyday utilities you always end up re-writing… but done once, cleanly.

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Requirements

• Node.js >= 18 (works great on Node 20/22)

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Install

Run without installing (recommended)

npx node-tools --help

Install globally (to use nt anywhere)

npm i -g node-tools
nt --help

Install locally (for development)

npm i
npm test

Note: The npm package name node-tools may already be taken on npm. If you want to publish this repo, consider using a scoped name like @devgautm/node-tools.

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CLI usage

nt <command> [options]
nt --help
nt --version

Commands

Command	What it does
hash	Hash text / files / stdin (sha256, md5, ...)
uuid	Generate UUID v4
json	Format, minify, or validate JSON
base64	Base64 encode/decode (standard + urlsafe)
slug	Turn text into a clean URL slug
time	Print current time or parse a timestamp
system	Quick system & Node runtime info

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Examples

hash

nt hash --text "hello"
# 2cf24dba5fb0a30e26e83b2ac5b9e29e1b161e5c1fa7425e73043362938b9824

echo "hello" | nt hash

nt hash --file package.json --algo sha256
nt hash --file package.json --algo md5

uuid

nt uuid
nt uuid --count 5

json

nt json format --file data.json
cat data.json | nt json minify > data.min.json
nt json validate --file data.json

base64

nt base64 encode --text "hello"
# aGVsbG8=

nt base64 decode --text "aGVsbG8="
# hello

# url-safe base64 (no + and /)
nt base64 encode --text "hello" --url

slug

nt slug --text "Hello, World!"
# hello-world

nt slug --text "  Café au lait  "
# cafe-au-lait

time

nt time now
nt time parse "2026-01-06T10:00:00Z"
nt time parse 1700000000
nt time parse 1700000000000

system

nt system

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Programmatic API

You can also import the utilities directly:

import { hashString, slugify, base64Encode, base64Decode } from "node-tools";

console.log(hashString("hello"));
console.log(slugify("Hello, World!"));
console.log(base64Encode("hello"));
console.log(base64Decode("aGVsbG8="));

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Project structure

node-tools/
  src/
    cli.js
    commands/        # CLI command implementations
    tools/           # Reusable utility functions
    utils/           # Shared helpers (IO, ansi formatting)
  test/              # Node's built-in test runner
  docs/              # Extended docs
  examples/          # Quick usage scripts

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

• Bug? Open an issue.
• New tool idea? Add a command in src/commands and the matching utilities in src/tools.

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.