cli-patterns
Installation
SKILL.md
CLI Patterns for Agentic Workflows
Patterns for building CLI tools that AI assistants and power users can chain, parse, and rely on.
Philosophy
Build CLIs for agentic workflows - AI assistants and power users who chain commands, parse output programmatically, and expect predictable behavior.
Core Principles
| Principle | Meaning | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Self-documenting | --help is comprehensive and always current |
LLMs discover capabilities without external docs |
| Predictable | Same patterns across all commands | Learn once, use everywhere |
| Composable | Unix philosophy - do one thing well | Tools chain together naturally |
| Parseable | --json always available, always valid |
Machine consumption without parsing hacks |
| Quiet by default | Data only, no decoration unless requested | Scripts don't break on unexpected output |
| Fail fast | Invalid input = immediate error | No silent failures or partial results |