Safe Chalk

Wrapper for chalk package with easy enable/disable option.

Usage

Import safe-chalk set enabled/disabled &

const safeChalk = require('safe-chalk')
 
console.log(chalk.red.bold('Hello'))
/* Normal chalk instance prints red bold "Hello" text */
 
/* In app code conditionally disable ... */
const foo = 'bar'
const disableColors = (foo === 'bar') ? true : false
const chalk = safeChalk(disableColors)
 
console.log(chalk.red.bold('Hello'))
/* Never-null chalk instance prints "Hello" text with no colors */

Real world example:

const safeChalk = require('safe-chalk')
const minimist = require('minimist')
const argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2))
 
// If --json flag disable chalk colors
const DISABLE_COLORS = argv.json || process.env.NO_COLORS
 
// Export chalk instance for usage in CLI
module.exports = safeChalk(DISABLE_COLORS)

Now if the --json flag is passed into the CLI command, chalk colors will be disabled

my-cli --json
# No colors! 

How it works.

If chalk is disabled the chalk instance will be wrapped in a never null proxy.

This means chalk won't throw for chained calls.

Alternative Approaches

chalk supports env variables process.env.FORCE_COLOR=0 to disable colors.

If the environment variable works for your use case, use chalk.

Why this package?

The env var must be set before chalk is imported, this can be tricky in certain cases. The env variable can also conflict with other packages using chalk.