# Kong Go CLI manual pages


I'm using [Kong the CLI argument parser](https://github.com/alecthomas/kong) to create manual pages
from the arguments and help described in the Kong structure that tells your CLI how to parse its command
line.

With a lot of use from the `reflect` package (this was before I discovered kong actually has an API
you can use), I'm creating manual pages from the kong CLI definition, while having great fun with
parsing `enum`, `default` and other tags to make the manual page really readable.

I.e. I've got something like this:

```go
List x.List `cmd:"" aliases:"ls" help:"ListX - list X details" description:"List details about x."
```

This gets parsed and help is used in the `Name` section, description is used for the ...
description. Synopsis too.

```markdown
NAME
ListX - list X details

SYNOPSIS
ListX [OPTION] XX

DESCRIPTION
List details about x.
```

The options are also parsed like this and everything is put in a Go template that outputs markdown,
this also means you can use markdown syntax in the help string.

```gotmpl
{{name -}}

{{synopsis -}}

{{description -}}

{{arguments -}}

{{options -}}
```

Which gets then converted to a manual page using [mmark](https://github.com/mmarkdown/mmark):

```go
p := parser.NewWithExtensions(parser.FencedCode | parser.DefinitionLists)
 p.Opts = parser.Options{
         ParserHook: func(data []byte) (ast.Node, []byte, int) { return mparser.Hook(data) },
         Flags:      parser.FlagsNone,
 }
 doc := markdown.Parse(b.Bytes(), p)
 renderer := man.NewRenderer(man.RendererOptions{})
 x := markdown.Render(doc, renderer)

 return string(x)
```

It's amazingly liberating to just write you option parsing and get all this stuff for free!

I'm also generation completions from this in the same way and making bash completion using
<strike>https://github.com/miekg/gompletely</strike>, a standalone completion and manual Go package at https://github.com/miekg/king.

I _might_ even productionize this and use Kong's proper API and publish a kong-man and
kong-completion package.