CLI Daemon Interface Design

cli-daemon-interface-design

Registry Trigger

Use when

• CLI TUI daemon command flags config precedence stdout stderr exit codes signals dry run background process scriptability

Do not use when

• no task-local cli daemon interface design decision is required

Skill Role

Define explicit CLI and daemon behavior for human use, automation, side effects, reruns, signals, configuration, and supervision.

High-Value Rules

• Define command grammar, configuration precedence, output and error contracts, and exit semantics from the affected human and automation consumers before implementation.
• When output is machine-consumed, separate stable requested data on stdout from diagnostics on stderr and select a versioned machine-readable representation appropriate to the consumer.
• For commands with remote, destructive, credential, or out-of-workspace effects, choose truthful preview, scoped confirmation, idempotency, or reconciliation controls from the effect and available authority; do not label a partial simulation as dry-run.
• Define non-idempotent rerun and partial-result behavior that prevents harmful silent repetition.
• When a process handles termination or reload, define cleanup, lock and child ownership, in-flight work, observable completion, and exit behavior from the supervisor and caller contracts.
• Require explicit production targets and credential input channels protected from history and process listings.

Anti-Patterns

• A fixed precedence ladder copied from another tool can override the wrong authority; derive precedence from the actual configuration sources and document the winner.
• Interactive confirmation without non-interactive behavior can hang automation or silently choose a destructive default.
• A force flag without a scoped target, current-state evidence, or consequence preview does not establish intent.
• Progress mixed into structured output breaks consumers even when the command succeeds.

Stop Conditions

• Escalate to security-privacy-gate for credential, IAM, secret, or sensitive-output boundaries.
• Escalate to delivery-release-gate for deploy, migration, publication, or production mutation.
• Escalate to reliability-observability-gate for supervised daemons, unattended execution, or operational signals.
• Escalate to data-api-contract-changer when machine output is a consumed contract and compatibility is unresolved.

Output Contract

• Return a CLI or daemon decision: define command model, config precedence, output, exits, dry-run, signals, lifecycle, daemon behavior, and tests

Targeted References