Ask HN: What do you use to make CLIs?

11 points by mmwtsn 3y ago ↗ HN

I am curious what people reach for when writing CLIs these days; specifically what language, libraries (if any), and why?

By CLI, I mean any executable program or script like git that supports commands, sub-commands, and POSIX-style flags.

I mostly work in Go, and have been happy with the standard library[1] or Cobra[2]. I also write a lot of shell scripts.

I thought it would be interesting to see some other approaches.

[1]: https://pkg.go.dev/flag [2]: https://cobra.dev

14 comments

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FujiApple 3y ago ↗

Rust + Clap: https://github.com/clap-rs/clap

stop50 3y ago ↗

For python i like the builtin argparse.

asicsp 3y ago ↗

I use a lot of CLI tools, but haven't written many for myself. Mostly, aliases/functions and some scripts in Bash/Python.

1) Extract details for command options from man/help: https://github.com/learnbyexample/command_help/blob/master/c...

2) cut-like syntax for field manipulations with regexp, negative indexing, etc: https://github.com/learnbyexample/regexp-cut/blob/main/rcut

3) Simple calculator using python syntax: https://learnbyexample.github.io/practice_python_projects/ca...

linkdd 3y ago ↗

Rust + Clap

Go + Cobra

Python + Click

wizwit999 3y ago ↗

Oclif is pretty nice for NodeJS, we use it for https://github.com/matanolabs/matano . https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea looks really beautiful, if you use Go.

jathu 3y ago ↗

I made fx at Flexport, which hosted many of our CLI tools. I liked it a lot, so I made one for myself when I left: https://github.com/jathu/fx

fx is a workspace tool manager. It allows you to create consistent, discoverable, language-neutral and developer friendly command line tools.

drakonka 3y ago ↗

I usually turn to Go for all of my CLI needs.

IceMetalPunk 3y ago ↗

I'm a JavaScript dev, so I tend to go for Node with Inquirer + Commander.

marek_leisk2 3y ago ↗

https://typer.tiangolo.com/

ezekg 3y ago ↗

I use Go and Cobra for my business’s CLI [0]. I like it. Go is pretty unmatched for CLIs.

[0]: https://github.com/keygen-sh/keygen-cli

pez_dev 3y ago ↗

Mostly go whenever shell scripts are not enough.

Check out the libraries from charm (charm.sh). They really make the command line glamorous!

simonblack 3y ago ↗

Sorry. Unless I'm missing something completely, I have to ask: 'Why would you bother to reinvent the wheel?'

If you want something like bash, just use bash. If you want a CLI in a GUI environment, just use 'terminal', or'xterm' or similar.

If you're talking about apps that run in a CLI, then the world is your oyster. Use whatever you need depending on what the app requires.

If you're talking about what language to use, then just use which ever language that you're comfortable with that can/will produce a text output.

rurban 3y ago ↗

95% C (with occasional Windows quirks),

5% shell.

previously lots of perl

zem 3y ago ↗

mostly ruby or python, though I would like to explore ocaml more for the purpose