cli-patterns
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 |
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