# Commander.js 12.0.0

- Product: Commander.js (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/commander)
- Vendor: TJ Holowaychuk
- Date: 2024-02-03
- Version: 12.0.0
- Original notes: https://www.npmjs.com/package/commander/v/12.0.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/commander/releases/12.0.0

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

---

- **added** — Add .addHelpOption() as another way of configuring built-in help option
- **added** — Add .helpCommand() for configuring built-in help command
- **fixed** — Use non-zero exit code when spawned executable subcommand terminates due to a signal
- **fixed** — Check passThroughOptions constraints when using .addCommand and throw if parent command does not have .enablePositionalOptions() enabled
- **changed** — Commander 12 requires Node.js v18 or higher
- **changed** — Throw an error if adding an option with a flag which is already in use
- **changed** — Throw an error if adding a command with name or alias which is already in use
- **changed** — Throw error when calling .storeOptionsAsProperties() after setting an option value
- **changed** — Replace non-standard JSDoc of @api private with documented @private
- **changed** — .addHelpCommand() now takes a Command (passing string or boolean still works as before but deprecated)
- **changed** — Refactor internal implementation of built-in help option
- **changed** — Refactor internal implementation of built-in help command
- **deprecated** — .addHelpCommand() passing string or boolean (use .helpCommand() or pass a Command)
- **removed** — Remove default export of a global Command instance from CommonJS (use the named program export instead)

###### Added

- `.addHelpOption()` as another way of configuring built-in help option ([#2006])
- `.helpCommand()` for configuring built-in help command ([#2087])

###### Fixed

- *Breaking:* use non-zero exit code when spawned executable subcommand terminates due to a signal ([#2023])
- *Breaking:* check `passThroughOptions` constraints when using `.addCommand` and throw if parent command does not have `.enablePositionalOptions()` enabled ([#1937])

###### Changed

- *Breaking:* Commander 12 requires Node.js v18 or higher ([#2027])
- *Breaking:* throw an error if add an option with a flag which is already in use ([#2055])
- *Breaking:* throw an error if add a command with name or alias which is already in use ([#2059])
- *Breaking:* throw error when calling `.storeOptionsAsProperties()` after setting an option value ([#1928])
- replace non-standard JSDoc of `@api private` with documented `@private` ([#1949])
- `.addHelpCommand()` now takes a Command (passing string or boolean still works as before but deprecated) ([#2087])
- refactor internal implementation of built-in help option ([#2006])
- refactor internal implementation of built-in help command ([#2087])

###### Deprecated

- `.addHelpCommand()` passing string or boolean (use `.helpCommand()` or pass a Command) ([#2087])

###### Removed

- *Breaking:* removed default export of a global Command instance from CommonJS (use the named `program` export instead) ([#2017])

###### Migration Tips

**global program**

If you are using the [deprecated](./docs/deprecated.md#default-import-of-global-command-object) default import of the global Command object, you need to switch to using a named import (or create a new `Command`).

```js
// const program = require('commander');
const { program } = require('commander');
```

**option and command clashes**

A couple of configuration problems now throw an error, which will pick up issues in existing programs:

- adding an option which uses the same flag as a previous option
- adding a command which uses the same name or alias as a previous command