Silverfin CLI

A command-line tool for Silverfin template development.

Why a CLI ?

This CLI was conceived to enable the development of Silverfin templates externally, offering extra flexibility in our development flow and the option to leverage existing tools like repositories and custom pipelines. It is designed to work seamlessly with git, allowing you to store templates in repositories and interact with Silverfin using the CLI.

Built on top of the Silverfin Public API, it has evolved beyond a standalone application to become part of the Silverfin VS Code Extension. Additionally, it can be implemented in GitHub Actions for managing template updates (example).

What can be used for ?

• Create, read, update your templates from the command-line while storing them in git repositories.
• Run your Liquid Tests from the command-line.
• Generate Liquid Tests from existing company files.

Setup & Basic Usage

Requirements

API credentials

To use this CLI tool you first need to register an API application within Silverfin. You will get a client_id and secret.

You will need (at least) the following scopes: administration:read administration:write financials:read financials:write workflows:read

Node

To make use of this CLI, you will need to have Node.js installed. You can check if you already have it by running node --version. If not you can download it from the official website.

Git

As mentioned before, it is recommended to be used together with git. Official website

CLI Installation

It is recommended to install the CLI globally by doing:

npm install -g https://github.com/silverfin/silverfin-cli.git

If you prefer, you could opt to add the CLI as a dependency to each of your projects containing a Liquid repository. Keep in mind that by doing so, the CLI may not work as expected (for example, the update command assumes that extension is installed globally).

Set your API credentials

You will need to set up your API credentials as environmental variables. Add them to an existing file in your system (e.g. ~/.bash-profile, ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc).

export SF_API_CLIENT_ID=...
export SF_API_SECRET=...

In case you need to use a different host, you can also set it up as an environmental variable. By default it would be https://live.getsilverfin.com.

export SF_HOST=...

Important considerations and assumptions that we adder to

Advanced Settings

Be sure to have enabled the "Dutch" locale in the firm's 'Advanced' settings. This is because the NL language is mandatory while interacting with templates (e.g. while creating them). If you are not using the NL locale, you could populate this field name_nl with your default language or English.

Project structure conventions

The CLI will stick to some conventions regarding the structure and organization of your templates. We recommend that you organize your templates following the same principles.

Repository

Here is an example of the directory structure that you can clone to use as a starting point of a new project, but basically files and directories are organized as follows:

/project
    /reconciliation_texts
        /[handle]
            main.liquid
            config.json
            /text_parts
                part_1.liquid
                part_2.liquid
            /tests
                README.md
                [handle]_liquid_test.yml
    /shared_parts
        /[name]
            [name].liquid
            config.json
    /export_files
        /[name]
            main.liquid
            config.json
            /text_parts
                part_1.liquid
                part_2.liquid
    /account_templates
        /[name_nl]
            main.liquid
            config.json
            /text_parts
                part_1.liquid
                part_2.liquid
            /tests
                README.md
                [name_nl]_liquid_test.yml

Naming conventions

• As you can see in the previous diagram, we use handle for Reconciliation Texts, name for Shared Parts and Export Files and name_nl for Account Templates as their identifiers. We strongly recommend to keep them unique since they will be used to name the directories, liquid files and yaml files and also to identify templates while running each of the commands. The only case where duplicate handles are supported in a single firm, are templates that are added from a marketplace package (so you could have one custom reconciliation text and one from the marketplace using the same handle, the CLI will skip the one from the marketplace and try to identify the custom one).
• The principal file of a Reconciliation Text, Export File or Account Template is always named main.liquid while every part is stored inside /text_parts.
• For shared parts, since there is only one liquid file, we use the name property to give the name to the liquid file.
• All templates always have a config.json file, where all the details of the template are stored.
• Reconciliation Texts and Shared Parts must be named using only alphanumeric characters and underscores. Meanwhile, Account Templates and Export Files should exclude backslashes and forward slashes from their name, to avoid any potential conflicts with the directory structure.

Test files

• Reconciliation Texts and Account Templates can stored Liquid Tests inside /test. You could store here multiple YAML files if needed, but only one will be used by the CLI to run the tests, and it's the one that follows the naming convetion shown in the previous diagram ([handle]_liquid_test.yml for Reconciliation Texts ot [name_nl]_liquid_test.yml for Account Templates). Note as well that we stick to using .yml instead of .yaml

How to use it ?

By installing the CLI globally, you will be able to run it simply with the command silverfin

Help

The only command that you really need to know, since it will provide you with a list of all the available commands.

silverfin --help

You can also run --help for each command to get more information about it. For example:

silverfin import-reconciliation --help

Authorize the CLI

The first time your are going to work with the CLI, you will need to authorize it's access. This can be done using the following command:

silverfin authorize

This will open a new tab in your browser, where you would need to login in to Silverfin. Once you have authorized the use of the API, you will need to provide the authorization code you get to the CLI.

Set up a default firm

If you are going to work with a single firm, you can set it up as the default firm for the CLI. This will save you from having to provide the firm id every time you run a command.

silverfin config --set-firm <firm_id>

Import a reconciliation

Most likely, you have worked already on the Silverfin platform and you already have an existing set of templates. You can import them to your local repository using the following command:

silverfin import-reconciliation --handle <handle>

The previous command also supports the flag --all to import all the reconciliations of a firm at once.

silverfin import-reconciliation --all

Note that the CLI will overwrite any existing template with the same handle.

Update a reconciliation

Once you have made updates to your reconciliation, you can update it using the following command:

silverfin update-reconciliation --handle <handle>

The previous command also supports the flag --all to update all the reconciliations of a firm at once.

silverfin update-reconciliation --all

Note that the entire code of the template in Silverfin will be replaced with the one in your local repository.

Shared Parts

You can import and update Shared Parts using similar commands as for Reconciliations.

silverfin import-shared-part --shared-part <handle>
silverfin update-shared-part --shared-part <handle>

Adding a shared part to a template

When you include a shared part in one of your templates, for example a reconciliation text, you need to add it to create their link. You can add a shared part to a reconciliation text using the following command:

silverfin add-shared-part --handle <handle> --shared-part <handle>

You can also remove it using the following command if it's no longer needed:

silverfin remove-shared-part --handle <handle> --shared-part <handle>

It is important to not interact directly with config.json to do so, and only add or remove shared parts using the CLI. The CLI won't be able to identify those changes manually done to config files, so the relationship between them won't be updated in the Platform as desired.

Run Liquid Tests

You can run the Liquid Tests of a reconciliation using the following command:

silverfin run-test --handle <handle>

Updating the CLI

Whenever a new version of the CLI is available, you should see a message in your terminal informing it, so you can keep it always up to date. To update the CLI to the latest version, you can run the following command:

silverfin update

Development mode

The development-mode will watch for changes in your local repository and automatically update the template in Silverfin. This is very useful when you are working on a template and you want to see the changes in Silverfin without having to run the run-test or update command every time.

It is important to know that you need to manually terminate this process (ctrl + c) when you no longer need it.

There are two different ways to use the development-mode:

• Using the --handle flag to specify the reconciliation you want to work on. This will run a new liquid test every time you save a related file of this reconciliation (liquid or yaml), including shared parts used by this reconciliation. (equivalent to use: silverfin run-test --handle <handle>)

silverfin development-mode --handle <handle>

• Using the --update-templates flag. This will listen for changes in liquid files. Every time a change is saved to a liquid file of a reconciliation or shared part, it will be updated in Silverfin. Note that this will not run any liquid test, and it will replace the liquid code of your template in Silverfin. (equivalent to use: silverfin update-reconciliation --handle <handle> or silverfin update-shared-part --shared-part <name>)

silverfin development-mode --update-templates

Contributing

If you find any bug or you have any suggestion, please feel free to open an issue in this repository.