Command Line Interface Guidelines (condensed)

Command Line Interface Guidelines (condensed)

Source + contribution:

• Full guide: https://clig.dev/
• Propose changes: https://github.com/cli-guidelines/cli-guidelines

Table of contents:

• Foreword
• Introduction
• Philosophy
  • Human-first design
  • Simple parts that work together
  • Consistency across programs
  • Saying (just) enough
  • Ease of discovery
  • Conversation as the norm
  • Robustness
  • Empathy
  • Chaos
• Guidelines
  • The Basics
  • Help
  • Documentation
  • Output
  • Errors
  • Arguments and flags
  • Interactivity
  • Subcommands
  • Robustness
  • Future-proofing
  • Signals and control characters
  • Configuration
  • Environment variables
  • Naming
  • Distribution
  • Analytics
  • Further reading
• Authors

This is a practical rubric for designing CLI interfaces (args/flags/subcommands/help/output/errors/config). Keep humans first, but preserve composability and scriptability.

Foreword

• CLI still uniquely powerful: inspect/control systems; works interactively and in automation.
• Modern CLI = human-first text UI, not just a machine-first REPL veneer.
• Goal: maximize utility + accessibility; design for humans and composition.

Introduction

• This guide mixes philosophy + concrete rules; bias: examples over theorizing.
• Out of scope: full-screen TUIs (vim/emacs-like).
• Language/tooling agnostic: apply principles regardless of implementation stack.

Philosophy

Human-first design

• Optimize for humans by default; scripts still work via stable modes (--json, --plain, exit codes).
• Don’t leak developer-only output to normal users; reserve for verbose/debug.

Simple parts that work together

• Assume your output becomes someone else’s input.
• Respect stdio, exit codes, signals; keep primary output on stdout.
• Prefer line-oriented plain text for piping; add JSON for structured needs.

Consistency across programs

• Follow common conventions unless they harm usability.
• Reuse standard flag names (--help, --version, --json, --dry-run, …).

Saying (just) enough

• Too little: “hangs” with no feedback. Too much: noisy debug spew.
• Make progress/status visible, but keep success output brief.

Ease of discovery

• Help text is part of UX. Put examples first; suggest next commands.
• When user errs, help them recover: point to the right syntax/flag.

Conversation as the norm

• Expect trial-and-error loops. Design for repeated invocations.
• Provide safe “dry run”/preview; show intermediate state; confirm scary actions.

Robustness

• Be correct and feel robust: responsive, clear, no scary traces by default.
• Handle bad input gracefully; validate early; clear errors.

Empathy

• Be on the user’s side. Make success likely; make failure informative.
• Character is fine; clutter is not.

Chaos

• Terminal ecosystem inconsistent; follow norms, but break them intentionally when needed.
• If you diverge, do it with clarity and document it.

Guidelines

The Basics

• Use a real argument parsing library when possible (built-in or reputable OSS).
• Exit codes: 0 on success, non-zero on failure; map a few important failure modes.
• Stdout for primary output (and machine-readable output). Stderr for messages/logs/errors.

Help

• Always support -h/--help. Do not overload -h.
• If run with missing required args, show concise help + 1–2 examples + “use --help”.
• Git-like CLIs: support mycmd help, mycmd help subcmd, mycmd subcmd --help.
• Link to a support path (repo/issues/docs). Prefer deep links per subcommand (when you have web docs).
• Lead with examples; show common flags/commands first; keep formatting readable without escape-char soup.

Documentation

• Provide web docs (searchable, linkable).
• Provide terminal docs (mycmd help ...); consider man pages where sensible.

Output

• Humans first, machines second: detect TTY to choose formatting.
• If fancy human output breaks parsing, offer --plain (stable, line-based) and/or --json.
• On success: usually print something, but keep it brief; add -q/--quiet when useful.
• If you change state, say what changed and what the new state is.
• Suggest “next commands” in workflowy tools.
• Use color sparingly; disable when not a TTY, NO_COLOR set, TERM=dumb, or --no-color.
• No animations/progress bars when stdout isn’t a TTY.
• Use a pager for long output only when interactive; common less opts: -FIRX.

Errors

• Catch and rewrite expected errors for humans; avoid stack traces by default.
• Keep signal-to-noise high; group repeated errors.
• Put the most important info last; use red intentionally (don’t drown the user).
• For unexpected crashes: provide a path to debug info + bug report instructions; write logs to a file if large.

Arguments and flags

• Prefer flags over positional args for clarity and future flexibility.
• Provide long versions of all flags; use one-letter flags only for the most common.
• Multiple args ok for repeated simple items (rm a b c); avoid “2+ different positional concepts”.
• Standard flag names (common set):
  • -h, --help help
  • --version version
  • -q, --quiet less output
  • -v, --verbose more output (avoid -v meaning version)
  • -d, --debug debug output
  • -f, --force skip confirmation / force
  • -n, --dry-run preview only
  • --json structured output
  • -o, --output <file> output path
  • --no-input disable prompts
• Default should be right for most users (don’t rely on everyone aliasing a flag).
• Support - for stdin/stdout when input/output is a file.
• Avoid secrets in flags; prefer --password-file or stdin.
• Prefer order independence for flags/subcommands where the parser allows.

Interactivity

• Prompt only if stdin is a TTY.
• --no-input: never prompt; if required input missing, fail with an actionable message.
• Password prompts: disable echo.
• Make escape hatch obvious (Ctrl-C, or explicit “press q”, etc).

Subcommands

• Use subcommands for complexity; share global flags/config/help.
• Be consistent across subcommands: naming, flags, output, formatting.
• Consider noun-verb (docker container create) or verb-noun; pick one and stick to it.
• Avoid ambiguous pairs (update vs upgrade) unless sharply differentiated.
• Avoid implicit “catch-all” subcommands; don’t allow arbitrary abbreviations (future-proofing trap).

Robustness

• Validate early; fail fast with good error messages.
• Be responsive: print something in <100ms (especially before network I/O).
• Show progress for long tasks (interactive only); don’t interleave logs confusingly.
• Use timeouts for network calls; allow configuration.
• Make reruns safe: idempotent where possible; recoverable; “crash-only” where feasible.

Future-proofing

• Interfaces are contracts: args, flags, subcommands, config, env vars, output modes.
• Keep changes additive; deprecate loudly + early; provide migration paths.
• Allow human output to evolve; keep scripts stable by encouraging --plain/--json.

Signals and control characters

• Ctrl-C: exit quickly; say something immediately; bound cleanup.
• Second Ctrl-C: optionally force; tell user what it does.
• Assume cleanup might not run; design for crash-only recovery.

Configuration

• Pick the right mechanism:
  • Per-invocation: flags (and sometimes env).
  • Per-user/machine: flags + env; possibly config file.
  • Per-project (checked in): config file in repo.
• Follow XDG base directories for user-level config when applicable.
• Precedence (high → low): flags > process env > project config > user config > system config.
• Don’t silently modify other programs’ config; ask consent; prefer new files over editing existing ones.

Environment variables

• Names: uppercase + digits + underscores; single-line values preferred.
• Respect common vars when relevant: NO_COLOR, DEBUG, EDITOR, PAGER, proxy vars, TERM, TMPDIR, HOME, COLUMNS/LINES.
• .env can be useful for per-project non-secret knobs; don’t use it as a full config system.
• Don’t accept secrets via env vars by default; prefer files/pipes/sockets/secret managers.

Naming

• Command name: simple, memorable, lowercase; avoid too-generic collisions.
• Keep it short but not cryptic; easy to type matters.

Distribution

• Prefer single binary when practical; otherwise use native packaging for uninstallability.
• Make uninstall easy; include instructions.

Analytics

• Never phone home without explicit consent; explain what/why/how/retention.
• Prefer opt-in; if opt-out, make it obvious and easy to disable.
• Consider alternatives: docs instrumentation, download metrics, talking to users.

Further reading

• POSIX Utility Conventions
• GNU Coding Standards (esp. flags/help conventions)
• 12 Factor CLI Apps
• Heroku CLI Style Guide

Authors

Original “Command Line Interface Guidelines” authors (and many contributors): Aanand Prasad, Ben Firshman, Carl Tashian, Eva Parish. Design by Mark Hurrell.