cli-patterns

Patterns for building production-quality CLI tools with predictable behavior, parseable output, and agentic workflows. Triggers: cli tool, command line tool, build cli, cli patterns, agentic cli, cli design, typer cli, click cli.

1.64x

Quality

86%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

94%

1.64x

Average score across 3 eval scenarios

Securityby

Passed

No known issues

Evaluation results

94%

57%

Local Contact Manager CLI

Stream separation and JSON output schema

Criteria

Without context

With context

stdout data only

100%

Rich stderr

100%

JSON list schema

40%

100%

JSON single-item schema

62%

100%

JSON error schema

100%

Error on stderr too

100%

NOT_FOUND exit code

100%

VALIDATION exit code

25%

Exit code constants

100%

_error helper

100%

Fail fast on missing args

100%

No decoration on stdout

100%

Without context: $0.3613 · 1m 13s · 21 turns · 76 in / 4,754 out tokens

With context: $0.9398 · 2m 33s · 38 turns · 290 in / 9,637 out tokens

100%

26%

Personal Note-Taking CLI

Command architecture, naming conventions, help system

Criteria

Without context

With context

Typer used

100%

Tool name convention

87%

100%

Resource plural noun

100%

Action verb lowercase

100%

Long flag kebab-case

100%

Short flag single letter

100%

--version flag

60%

100%

Help has examples

100%

jq pipe example

50%

100%

Command hierarchy

100%

Boolean flag no value

87%

100%

Consistent --json flag

20%

100%

Without context: $0.3445 · 1m 15s · 25 turns · 29 in / 4,509 out tokens

With context: $0.9977 · 3m 6s · 39 turns · 44 in / 11,920 out tokens

90%

30%

Expense Tracker CLI

Data conventions and semantic exit codes

Criteria

Without context

With context

ISO 8601 date output

100%

Flexible date input

100%

Money as decimal

100%

Currency field included

100%

No money formatting

100%

IDs as strings

100%

Enum UPPER_SNAKE_CASE output

Enum case-insensitive input

100%

NOT_FOUND exit 3

100%

VALIDATION exit 4

100%

Correct error code string

100%

Without context: $0.5375 · 1m 54s · 29 turns · 38 in / 7,402 out tokens

With context: $0.8512 · 2m 34s · 35 turns · 38 in / 9,886 out tokens

Repository: NeverSight/skills_feed
Commit: 5342bca

Evaluated: 13 days ago
Agent: Claude Code
Model: Claude Sonnet 4.6

Table of Contents

Local Contact Manager CLI Personal Note-Taking CLI Expense Tracker CLI

Is this your skill?

If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.