Some ideas: it would be nice if you could run it inside a web browser. You could print data-structures, and like in the developer console, you could navigate through data-structures by unfolding them. You could also do console.log(image), and the image would appear inside the browser. Or you could type "admin()", and a menu with buttons would appear below the command prompt. Etcetera...
Definitely good ideas, but there's some tools that do similar things, and I wouldn't want to tread on the other libraries' boots. I forget the name, but one popular library creates a web server where you can open chrome web tools and do profiling on the fly, which is awesome.
Vantage.js is entirely based on TTY controls, so it wouldn't really work too well in a browser.
Interesting and strong app, I'm wondering what's the best use for this ? deployment like gulp/grunt ? ordinary devops tasks like app management and backups ?
It can take on several roles. I think the most prominent are devops / debugging live apps. It gives you a bit more leeway than having to just rely on what you logged before you deployed the app. If you are missing data, it can let you jump into a remote REPL and find out more.
Another one is helping while you are developing an app - you can call functions you are working on and play around with application state. That's why I originally put it together for myself.
But I'm sure others can think of even more inventive uses - that's why I made it extensible so others smarter than me can write plugins.
Cool to see more REPL love in node land. The Rails console / tools like pry always were some of the bigger selling points for Ruby / Rails to me. I do wonder if node.js will eventually become or maybe even already is the new PHP/Ruby/Rails all rolled into one ;)
(Just thinking out loud).