A shorter CLI command

[zkochan]

I remember a few posts on Twitter about pnpm being hard to say and hard to type. I don't think we need to rename the project but we can create a shorter version of the CLI command.

What if we will export an alias called pn?

So users will be able to use either pnpm install or pn install

[thynson]

I think the name shall be kept as is, but more shortcuts for sub-commands and options would be appreciated.

[zkochan]

Subcommands have short aliases already: i, rm, up, ls...

[thynson]

Yeah, even not frequently used subcommand has a shortcut.
While pnpm has 4 characters, which is at least the same with yarn, so I don't think it needs to be shorter.

[zkochan]

You can think about it as a feature. Less typing than npm or yarn. But as I said, it would be just an alias. pnpm would be still available.

[italodeandra]

@thynson I agree that 4 characters is already short, but I'm having a really hard time trying not to write npnpm for some unknown reason to me. This is totally a brain confusion but an alias like pn would be awesome.

[ibezkrovnyi]

4 letters is already short enough, but it's hard for me and for most devs in our teams to type pnpm. I mostly type npnpm or pnm, sometimes npm. idk why. Experimented a bit and if first letter has to be p (top rightmost letter on kb), then next letter has to be for the left hand, best - any leftmost letter, e.g. pq, pa, pz. After that right hand is already ready to type -- to add some cli parameter

[sunnylqm]

Another big problem is, "pnpm" is not so good for search engine. It easily gets overshadowed.

[zkochan]

yes, this was mentioned a lot on Twitter. This is a legitimate issue. Should we rename the project?

[sunnylqm]

I'll vote yes. It deserves a name that not related to npm at all.

[Danny-Rodriguez]

This might be an old thread but I’d say an alias would be appreciated. I used pnpm for the first time the other day from a tutorial and I had so much trouble consistently typing “pnpm”. It must be a cognitive process judging from others’ responses here.

[zkochan]

We have instructions how to make a shorter alias: https://pnpm.io/installation#using-a-shorter-alias

[Jack-Works]

I have a shell function that called i, which calls npm i yarn or pnpm i based on the lockfile in the current dir.

[zkochan]

There's also a tool that can make it automatically: https://github.com/antfu/ni

[kylemh]

Drop the “n”.

Just: “p”.

It’s cleaner.

[zkochan]

That sounds like pee

[benschac]

Giving my two cents as a developer with dyslexia. The command pnpm is difficult to write. I'm constantly having to double or triple-check every time I write the command. Even just saying the name of the tool is kind of tricky.

While I could create an alias. I don't have to create an alias for yarn or npm. I'd love to not have to treat pnpm differently than its peers and take additional steps to use the tool.

I know I'm using free open source software and the solution is either to fix this myself or use a different tool.

What I'm asking is to bring the barrier of entry down. It's harder to get started with pnpm than its competitors.

[zkochan]

Would the "pn" alias be easier to write for you? I agree that the project name is hard to pronounce. I don't think a rename at this stage is a good idea. But we can change the way it is pronounced. Like I know some pronounce it as "pinpom"

[hiepxanh]

Yes I think an alias is just enough, we dont need to rename

[hiepxanh]

hello, any update on this? I love pn shortcut, add it please sir
@zkochan

[zkochan]

This issue doesn't have a lot of upvotes. For now, you can create an alias yourself by putting this into your shell config:

alias pn=pnpm

[zkochan]

We may put a recipe about it to the installation page: https://pnpm.io/installation

[hiepxanh]

Yes, i think that is good place for everybody

[angelhdzdev]

Thanks for the solution, aliases. I use Powershell 7 Core in Windows so in my case it was set-alias -name pn -value pnpm.

[zkochan]

Could you instructions how to do it to our docs?

See the Using a shorter alias section here https://pnpm.io/installation#using-a-shorter-alias

[angelhdzdev]

If you are asking me to make a pull request of the documentation, sure, I will be more than pleased to contribute. Indeed, I was about to make a video yesterday for my YouTube tutorials channel, but couldn't record it due to little time. But I am going to record it today and then make the pull request.

[zkochan]

ok, if it is related, you can also add a link to your video.

[angelhdzdev]

I made the pull request, and it's ready to be merged. I will make the video later because I didn't have the time.