Why I Created a Password Generator CLI Tool

Yes, I shipped my own password generator CLI and put it on npm. It's about 12kB, dead simple, and open source.

Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@thpadelis/gpass
Source: https://github.com/ThPadelis/gpass

Why bother?

I got tired of opening a website, clicking through options, and copying a password every time I needed one in the terminal.

I also hadn't shipped anything personal in a while. Routine was eating the fun. A small CLI felt like the right size to fix both.

How it works

Install globally:

npm install -g @thpadelis/gpass

Then gpass -h lists flags.

Examples

15 characters:

gpass -l 15
# output
# gV6|yA5&lA1=iV9

PIN style:

gpass -p
# output
# 5176246270

Five passwords, 10 chars, no symbols:

gpass -l 10 -n 5 -es
# output
# dY6tA6nM7q
# hK4eB6qE5p
# cD5pM0eJ0l
# cM4bV5uQ6s
# sD3bG1yV2n

Copy straight to clipboard:

gpass -cp

More examples live in the README.

Outcome

It's not the first CLI password tool and it won't be the best. It's mine, it works for my flow, and it was a nice excuse to publish something small. Comments and feature ideas welcome.