Agent-Friendly CLI Design

Checklist and patterns for building CLIs that agents can use effectively. Most CLIs assume a human at the keyboard — these patterns close the gap.

Core Principles

1. Non-Interactive by Default

Every input must be passable as a flag. Interactive prompts block agents.

# ❌ Blocks agents
$ mycli deploy
? Which environment? (use arrow keys)

# ✅ Works
$ mycli deploy --env staging