claudegoodies
Skill

cli-developer

From Jeffallan

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.

Guides building CLI tools with command/flag design, shell completions, and framework-specific patterns for commander, click, typer, cobra.

Use it when

  • Designing subcommands, flags, and config for a new CLI
  • Adding progress bars, spinners, or interactive prompts to a terminal app
  • Generating bash/zsh/fish shell completion scripts
  • Choosing a framework for Node.js, Python, or Go CLI implementation

Skip it if

  • Only covers Node.js, Python, and Go frameworks (commander, click, typer, cobra)
  • Provides guidance and templates, not a working library or generator
  • Requires loading separate reference files for framework-specific details

Facts

Repository
Jeffallan/claude-skills
Status
Actively maintained
Last commit
Source file
skills/cli-developer/SKILL.md

Source preview

The instructions Claude Code reads when this skill runs.

# CLI Developer

## Core Workflow

1. **Analyze UX** — Identify user workflows, command hierarchy, common tasks. Validate by listing all commands and their expected `--help` output before writing code.
2. **Design commands** — Plan subcommands, flags, arguments, configuration. Confirm flag naming is consistent and no existing signatures are broken.
3. **Implement** — Build with the appropriate CLI framework for the language (see Reference Guide below). After wiring up commands, run `<cli> --help` to verify help text renders correctly and `<cli> --version` to confirm version output.
4. **Polish** — Add completions, help text, error messages, progress indicators. Verify TTY detection for color output and graceful SIGINT handling.
5. **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)
View full source on GitHub →

Other skills