cli-developer
Use when building CLI tools, implementing argument parsing, or adding interactive prompts. Invoke for parsing flags and subcommands, displaying progress bars and spinners, generating bash/zsh/fish completion scripts, CLI design, shell completions, and cross-platform terminal applications using commander, click, typer, or cobra.
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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/jeffallan/claude-skills --skill cli-developer- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads cli-developer automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
Security audits
Independent scans of the skill's instructions and bundled files.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
CLI Developer
Core Workflow
- Analyze UX — Identify user workflows, command hierarchy, common tasks. Validate by listing all commands and their expected
--helpoutput before writing code. - Design commands — Plan subcommands, flags, arguments, configuration. Confirm flag naming is consistent and no existing signatures are broken.
- Implement — Build with the appropriate CLI framework for the language (see Reference Guide below). After wiring up commands, run
<cli> --helpto verify help text renders correctly and<cli> --versionto confirm version output. - Polish — Add completions, help text, error messages, progress indicators. Verify TTY detection for color output and graceful SIGINT handling.
- Test — Run cross-platform smoke tests; benchmark startup time (target: <50ms).
Reference Guide
Load detailed guidance based on context:
| Topic | Reference | Load When |
|---|---|---|
| Design Patterns | references/design-patterns.md | Subcommands, flags, config, architecture |
| Node.js CLIs | references/node-cli.md | commander, yargs, inquirer, chalk |
| Python CLIs | references/python-cli.md | click, typer, argparse, rich |
| Go CLIs | references/go-cli.md | cobra, viper, bubbletea |
| UX Patterns | references/ux-patterns.md | Progress bars, colors, help text |
Quick-Start Example
Node.js (commander)
#!/usr/bin/env node
// npm install commander
const { program } = require('commander');
program
.name('mytool')
.description('Example CLI')
.version('1.0.0');
program
.command('greet <name>')
.description('Greet a user')
.option('-l, --loud', 'uppercase the greeting')
.action((name, opts) => {
const msg = `Hello, ${name}!`;
console.log(opts.loud ? msg.toUpperCase() : msg);
});
program.parse();
For Python (click/typer) and Go (cobra) quick-start examples, see references/python-cli.md and references/go-cli.md.
Constraints
MUST DO
- Keep startup time under 50ms
- Provide clear, actionable error messages
- Support
--helpand--versionflags - Use consistent flag naming conventions
- Handle SIGINT (Ctrl+C) gracefully
- Validate user input early
- Support both interactive and non-interactive modes
- Test on Windows, macOS, and Linux
MUST NOT DO
- Block on synchronous I/O unnecessarily — use async reads or stream processing instead.
- Print to stdout when output will be piped — write logs/diagnostics to stderr.
- Use colors when output is not a TTY — detect before applying color:
// Node.js const useColor = process.stdout.isTTY;# Python import sys use_color = sys.stdout.isatty()// Go import "golang.org/x/term" useColor := term.IsTerminal(int(os.Stdout.Fd())) - Break existing command signatures — treat flag/subcommand renames as breaking changes.
- Require interactive input in CI/CD environments — always provide non-interactive fallbacks via flags or env vars.
- Hardcode paths or platform-specific logic — use
os.homedir()/os.UserHomeDir()/Path.home()instead. - Ship without shell completions — all three frameworks above have built-in completion generation.
Output Templates
When implementing CLI features, provide:
- Command structure (main entry point, subcommands)
- Configuration handling (files, env vars, flags)
- Core implementation with error handling
- Shell completion scripts if applicable
- Brief explanation of UX decisions
Knowledge Reference
CLI frameworks (commander, yargs, oclif, click, typer, argparse, cobra, viper), terminal UI (chalk, inquirer, rich, bubbletea), testing (snapshot testing, E2E), distribution (npm, pip, homebrew, releases), performance optimization
Maintained by @jeffallan, Principal Consultant at Synergetic Solutions
FAQ
What does the cli-developer skill do?
Use when building CLI tools, implementing argument parsing, or adding interactive prompts. Invoke for parsing flags and subcommands, displaying progress bars and spinners, generating bash/zsh/fish completion scripts, CLI design, shell completions, and cross-platform terminal applications using commander, click, typer, or cobra.
How do I install cli-developer?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/jeffallan/claude-skills --skill cli-developer in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/cli-developer/ (personal) or .claude/skills/cli-developer/ (project).
Which AI agents can use cli-developer?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is cli-developer safe to install?
Security partners have reviewed it: Gen Agent Trust Hub flagged risks; Socket passed; Snyk passed; Runlayer flagged items to review; ZeroLeaks passed. As with any skill, read the SKILL.md and bundled scripts before installing.
Who maintains cli-developer?
It is published by jeffallan in jeffallan/claude-skills. It has 4,866 recorded installs.
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