The big picture
The Magic README 1.1 is a ground-up rebuild: the whole CLI is now written in TypeScript and the terminal experience was redesigned around a modern, colorized, four-step prompt flow. This release is what you get when you install today.
What’s new
TypeScript rewrite
The codebase was rewritten from scratch in TypeScript on a modern toolchain. The terminal UI is colorized, and the same four-step flow — action → template → details → preview — runs consistently across every path.
10 built-in templates
Ten templates ship out of the box, grouped into five categories:
- Classic —
classic,classic-stats - Minimal —
minimal - Modern —
modern - Production —
production - Useful / Specialty —
cli,library,saas,opensource,supabase
Custom templates
Save any Markdown layout as a reusable recipe with {{placeholders}} ({{repoName}}, {{authorName}}, {{repoUrl}}, {{logo}}, {{email}}, {{linkedin}}). Templates are stored per-user in ~/.the-magic-readme/templates and appear in the picker after the built-ins.
Listing templates
the-magic-readme templates prints every built-in template grouped by category, plus any custom templates you’ve saved.
Preview & confirm
The flow ends with a rendered Markdown preview. If the target file already exists, you’re warned that it will be overwritten — nothing is written until you confirm.
Upgrading
npm update -g the-magic-readmeExisting custom templates keep working without changes — they’re stored outside the package in ~/.the-magic-readme/templates.