Arguments

When you run a Lune script, you can pass information to it directly from the command line. These are called arguments, and they’re incredibly useful for making your scripts flexible and reusable.

Passing Arguments

Passing arguments when running a script is dead simple. Here’s how:

Terminal

lune run script-name arg1 arg2 "argument three"

Using Arguments

Your script can then access these arguments through the process standard library:

local process = require("@lune/process")

print(process.args)
--> { "arg1", "arg2", "argument three" }

The arguments will always be an array (table) of strings, in the same order you provided them.

A Practical Example

Let’s create a script that greets someone by name:

greet.luau

local process = require("@lune/process")

if #process.args == 0 then
  print("Usage: lune run greet <name>")
  print("Example: lune run greet Alice")
else
  local name = process.args[1]
  print(`Hello, {name}! Welcome to Lune.`)
end

Now you can run it with different names:

Terminal

lune run greet Alice
--> Hello, Alice! Welcome to Lune.

lune run greet "John Doe"
--> Hello, John Doe! Welcome to Lune.

Combining Arguments with User Input

Here’s a clever pattern - use arguments when provided, but fall back to prompting the user if they’re missing:

smart-greet.luau

local process = require("@lune/process")
local stdio = require("@lune/stdio")

local name
if #process.args > 0 then
  name = process.args[1]
else
  name = stdio.prompt("text", "What's your name?")
end

print(`Hello, {name}!`)

This script works both ways - with arguments or interactively!

What’s Next?

Now that you can handle user input and arguments, let’s explore one of Lune’s most powerful features - the standard library for networking. Head over to Networking to learn more.