# Inquirer.js 8.0.0

- Product: Inquirer.js (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/inquirer)
- Vendor: Inquirer
- Date: 2025-11-16
- Version: 8.0.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/SBoudrias/Inquirer.js/releases/tag/%40inquirer/prompts%408.0.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/inquirer/releases/8.0.0

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'.

---

- **removed** — CommonJS support; all packages are now ESM-only
- **changed** — Minimum Node.js version is now 20.x (specifically >=23.5.0 || ^22.13.0 || ^21.7.0 || ^20.12.0)
- **removed** — list prompt alias from inquirer package; use select instead
- **removed** — helpMode theme property; use theme.style.keysHelpTip instead
- **removed** — instructions config property; use theme.style.keysHelpTip instead
- **removed** — cancel() method on prompt return promise; use AbortSignal instead
- **changed** — Replaced yoctocolors with Node.js built-in util.styleText() for terminal colors

#### Release Notes

##### 🚨 Breaking Changes

This is a major release that modernizes the codebase for Node.js ≥ 20.

###### ESM Only - No More CommonJS Support

**Impact:** All packages are now ESM-only. CommonJS imports are no longer supported.

If you're on modern Node versions (≥ 20), this should be transparent and have no impact.

###### Node.js Version Requirement

**Minimum Node.js version is now 20.x**

Node.js versions below 20 are no longer supported. Please upgrade to Node.js 20 or later.

Node min versions: `>=23.5.0 || ^22.13.0 || ^21.7.0 || ^20.12.0`

###### Deprecated APIs Removed

The following deprecated APIs have been removed after being deprecated in previous releases:

###### `list` prompt alias removed (affects `inquirer` package only)

The `list` alias has been removed from the `inquirer` package. This only impacts users of the legacy `inquirer` package, not users of `@inquirer/prompts` or individual prompt packages.

```js
// ❌ No longer available (inquirer package only)
import inquirer from 'inquirer';
const answer = await inquirer.prompt([
  { type: 'list', name: 'choice', message: 'Pick one:', choices: ['a', 'b'] }
]);

// ✅ Use 'select' instead
import inquirer from 'inquirer';
const answer = await inquirer.prompt([
  { type: 'select', name: 'choice', message: 'Pick one:', choices: ['a', 'b'] }
]);
```

###### `helpMode` theme property removed
```js
// ❌ No longer available
const answer = await select({
  theme: { helpMode: 'never' }
});

// ✅ Use theme.style.keysHelpTip instead
const answer = await select({
  theme: {
    style: {
      keysHelpTip: () => undefined // or your custom styling function
    }
  }
});
```

This affects the following prompts:
- `@inquirer/checkbox`
- `@inquirer/search`
- `@inquirer/select`

###### `instructions` config property removed
```js
// ❌ No longer available
const answer = await checkbox({
  instructions: 'Custom instructions'
});

// ✅ Use theme.style.keysHelpTip instead
const answer = await checkbox({
  theme: {
    style: {
      keysHelpTip: (text) => 'Custom instructions'
    }
  }
});
```

This affects the following prompts:
- `@inquirer/checkbox`
- `@inquirer/search`
- `@inquirer/select`

###### `cancel()` method removed

The `cancel()` method on prompt return custom `Promise` has been removed.

```js
// ❌ No longer available
const answerPromise = input({ message: 'Name?' });
answerPromise.cancel();
const answer = await answerPromise;

// ✅ Use AbortSignal instead
const controller = new AbortController();
const answer = await input(
  { message: 'Name?' },
  { signal: controller.signal }
);
controller.abort();
```

###### Color Library Change: yoctocolors → Node.js `styleText`

**Internal change:** The project now uses Node.js built-in `util.styleText()` instead of the `yoctocolors` package for terminal colors. This makes Inquirer smaller and reduces risks of vulnerabilities coming from transitive dependencies.