CLI Developer

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Designing a command hierarchy and flags for a new CLI tool
• Implementing a CLI with commander, click, typer or cobra
• Adding shell completion scripts, progress bars or proper SIGINT handling
• Reviewing a CLI for TTY detection and piping behavior

Example prompts

• “Design the subcommand structure for a CLI that manages database migrations.”
• “Implement this CLI in Python with typer, including bash completion.”
• “Review my Node CLI for TTY color detection and SIGINT handling.”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Analyze UX — Identify user workflows, command hierarchy, common tasks. Validate by listing all commands and their expected --help output…
2. 2Design commands — Plan subcommands, flags, arguments, configuration. Confirm flag naming is consistent and no existing signatures are…
3. 3Implement — Build with the appropriate CLI framework for the language (see Reference Guide below). After wiring up commands, run --help to…
4. 4Polish — Add completions, help text, error messages, progress indicators. Verify TTY detection for color output and graceful SIGINT…
5. 5Test — Run cross-platform smoke tests; benchmark startup time (target: <50ms).

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 1be15d8. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are javascript, python and go).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

  • github.com
  • synergetic.solutions
  • jeffallan.github.io

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

CLI Developer loads about 1.2k tokens when it runs, and up to ~12k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 86 tokens; SKILL.md has 381 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~86

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.2k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~12k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Jeffallan/claude-skills at commit 1be15d8, republished under its MIT licence (© Jeffallan). 381 words, ~1,192 tokens.

name

cli-developer

description

Use when building CLI tools, implementing argument parsing, or adding interactive prompts. Invoke for parsing flags and subcommands, displaying progress bars and spinners, generating bash/zsh/fish completion scripts, CLI design, shell completions, and cross-platform terminal applications using commander, click, typer, or cobra.

license

MIT

metadata.author

https://github.com/Jeffallan

metadata.company

https://synergetic.solutions

metadata.version

1.1.0

metadata.domain

devops

metadata.triggers

CLI, command-line, terminal app, argument parsing, shell completion, interactive prompt, progress bar, commander, click, typer, cobra

metadata.role

specialist

metadata.scope

implementation

metadata.output-format

code

metadata.related-skills

devops-engineer

#!/usr/bin/env node
// npm install commander
const { program } = require('commander');

program
  .name('mytool')
  .description('Example CLI')
  .version('1.0.0');

program
  .command('greet <name>')
  .description('Greet a user')
  .option('-l, --loud', 'uppercase the greeting')
  .action((name, opts) => {
    const msg = `Hello, ${name}!`;
    console.log(opts.loud ? msg.toUpperCase() : msg);
  });

program.parse();

© Jeffallan, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 5 other files (references) in skills/cli-developer of Jeffallan/claude-skills.

• SKILL.md
• references/design-patterns.md
• references/go-cli.md
• references/node-cli.md
• references/python-cli.md
• references/ux-patterns.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 1be15d8

Used in 2 other repositories

We found 3 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 2 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in Jeffallan/claude-skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• majiayu000/claude-skill-registryskills/bash/cli-developerskills/bash/cli-developer-henriquemeireles7-zeny-app
• aAAaqwq/AGI-Super-Teamskills/cli-developer