Coming soon · FlatFilePro CLI

The same file. Every night. Without the manual step.

The free browser tool helps you get a layout right. We’re exploring a paid command-line tool to run that layout from scheduled jobs and scripts.

The CLI is not available to buy or download. Proposed price: US$99 lifetime. Features, licensing details and timing are still being decided. No payment is taken today.

Where automation would help

• Nightly ERP exports: produce a fixed-width file from the latest CSV without reopening the editor.
• Scheduled imports: extract CSV from the same positional layout each week.
• SFTP file drops: have an existing transfer job invoke a converter after it has downloaded a complete file.
• CI/CD and batch scripts: fail a job on invalid data and keep a readable validation report.

These are target workflows, not released integrations. SFTP transfer, scheduling and ERP connectivity would remain the responsibility of your existing systems unless a future feature explicitly adds them.

Prove the layout before scheduling it

1. Use the free converter with representative data and the receiving system’s specification.
2. Review positions, padding, character restrictions and line endings. Test edge cases: blank values, longer names, missing columns and amounts with more digits.
3. Export the .ffspec. Keep sensitive constants private and version the rules when your receiving system changes.
4. Confirm what should happen on failure, where files should be written, and who should receive alerts.

One layout across the website and future CLI

The site already uses a standalone JavaScript conversion core. The planned CLI would consume the same versioned layouts and validation rules. This is the intended command shape, not a command you can run today:

flatfilepro convert input.csv --spec customer.ffspec --output output.txt

Windows and Linux, explicit validation failures, exit codes, JSON reports and local processing are planned. Reverse conversion is part of the design, using the positional extraction behavior already available in the browser. The browser supports multiple row types in both directions. Automatic headers/trailers, totals, EBCDIC and packed decimal remain unsupported.

Help us decide what to build first

Tell us how often the job runs, its operating system, conversion direction and whether it starts from a scheduled task, ERP export, SFTP drop or pipeline. The site prepares an email draft for you to review and send. Your source records and layouts are never attached automatically.

Share your automation requirements or email contact@flatfilepro.com. Occasional manual conversion stays free, with no signup required.