⚡ Makefile Commander (or just m)

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Makefile Commander is an ultra-fast, lightweight interactive CLI commander for your Makefile, written in pure Node.js.

🚀 Zero external dependencies. Only requires Node.js (v12+). 🎨 Beautiful TTY UI with categories, instant search, arrow-key navigation, and clean terminal output.

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🔥 Why is it awesome?

• Instant Search: Just start typing to filter commands by name, category, or description text on the fly.
• Group by Categories: Organize your Makefile with ease. Split commands into logical blocks (Docker, Database, Deploy, etc.).
• Seamless Interactive Commands: Running real-time logs (like docker compose logs -f) or interactive prompts inside your commands won't break the terminal UI — everything runs exactly as if you executed it directly.
• No Terminal Clutter: The tool cleanly erases its interface from the terminal before executing a command and upon exit, leaving your shell history pristine.

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🛠️ Quick Setup (alias as m)

To run the utility by typing just a single letter m from any directory, copy it to your local executable path:

Option 1: System-wide installation (for all users)

sudo cp make.js /usr/local/bin/m && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/m

Option 2: Local installation (for your user only)

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp make.js ~/.local/bin/m
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/m

💡 Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your $PATH environment variable (usually configured in your ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile by adding export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH").

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✍️ How to Document Your Makefile

Makefile Commander automatically parses targets and comments. You can format them in two ways:

Method 1: Inline Comments (using ##)

The most concise way. Just add a description on the same line as the target, separated by double hash symbols:

up: ## Run local dev environment in background
	docker compose up -d

down: ## Stop containers and clean environment
	docker compose down

Method 2: Categories and Multi-line Descriptions

For larger projects, you can group commands logically using the @category tag. Any comments immediately preceding the target will be used as its description:

# @category App Development

# Build both frontend and backend for production
# with pre-build cache cleaning
build:
	npm run build

# @category Docker Local

# Spin up local PostgreSQL database
db-up:
	docker compose up -d postgres

# Stop PostgreSQL and delete persisted volumes
db-clean:
	docker compose down -v

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🎮 Usage

Simply type m in any directory containing a Makefile:

m

UI Controls:

• [↑ / ↓] or [Ctrl+P / Ctrl+N] — Navigate through commands.
• Any characters — Search and filter in real-time.
• [Backspace] — Delete character in search.
• [Enter] — Run selected command.
• [Esc] or [Ctrl+C] — Exit utility.

Direct Execution (skip the menu)

If you already know the command name, pass it as an argument:

m build

• If the build target exists in your Makefile, it runs immediately, bypassing the menu.
• If it doesn't exist, the interactive UI opens with your query pre-filled in the search bar.

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📦 Requirements

• Node.js v12.0.0 or newer.
• Make (pre-installed on macOS and most Linux distributions).
• No npm install or package.json required — works out of the box!