skills-public/cli-tooling.md

---
name: cli-tooling
description: >-
  Use this skill whenever invoking a command-line tool, choosing between a CLI and an ad-hoc
  script, writing a standalone utility script, or orienting on unfamiliar work before starting.
  Covers discovering a CLI's real interface instead of guessing flags, non-interactive and
  machine-readable invocation, script placement and symlinking, and care around destructive
  or outward-facing commands.
---

# CLI & Tooling — Discovery, Invocation, and Script Placement

How to use command-line tools correctly, and where utility scripts belong.
Companion to [`coding-dev.md`](./coding-dev.md), which covers writing the code itself.

---

## 1. Discovery Over Guessing

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Read the tool's own help before using it. Never guess subcommands or flags.**
> ```bash
> <tool> --help
> <tool> <subcommand> --help
> ```

A tool's built-in help is authoritative and current; memory and training data are neither.
Flags get renamed, subcommands get restructured, and a confidently-invented flag either
errors out or — far worse — silently means something else.

**This applies to listing capabilities, too.** When asked what a tool can do, run its help
and report what it actually says. Do not produce a speculative command list; a plausible-
looking invented flag is indistinguishable from a real one to whoever reads it next.

### Walk the whole help tree

Multi-level CLIs hide most of their surface one level down. `<tool> --help` shows the
subcommand list; the flags that matter usually live in `<tool> <subcommand> --help`.

### Don't reinvent a tool that exists

**When a dedicated CLI already provides the functionality, use it** rather than writing an
ad-hoc script, a one-off `curl` pipeline, or a bespoke API client. The CLI already handles
authentication, retries, pagination, error formatting, and the edge cases you have not
thought of yet.

Before writing a script to do something, check whether:
- a dedicated CLI for that system is already installed,
- the tool you are already using has a subcommand for it,
- the project's own `scripts/` directory already contains it.

---

## 2. Non-Interactive Invocation

Anything run from a script, a CI job, or an agent must not depend on a human being present.

- **Pass required targets explicitly.** A CLI that manages multiple objects will, when no
  target is given, either prompt interactively or fail — both of which break automation.
  Always pass `--server <id>`, `--profile <name>`, `--target <x>` rather than relying on a
  default or a prompt.
- **Use the tool's own blocking flag** (`--wait`, `--follow`, `--no-detach`) when you need an
  operation to finish before the next step. Do not build a polling loop around a command that
  already knows how to wait — and never write a shell `until`/`while` wait loop
  (see [`code-languages/bash.md`](./code-languages/bash.md)).
- **Prefer a `--dry-run` rehearsal** for anything that deploys, releases, or deletes, when the
  tool offers one.
- Set `--yes` / `--non-interactive` deliberately and only where the action is genuinely safe —
  not as a reflex to stop a tool from asking.

---

## 3. Machine-Readable Output

When output feeds another program — or an agent's context — ask the tool for a structured
format rather than parsing its human-facing table.

```bash
tool list -o json       # full fidelity
tool list -o compact    # minimal tokens, good for agent context
tool list -o csv        # structured columns for a spreadsheet or script
```

- **Never scrape a table meant for humans.** Column widths, truncation, colour codes, and
  alignment all change without notice; a structured format is a contract.
- Strip colour explicitly (`--color never`, `NO_COLOR=1`) when capturing output, or escape
  sequences end up in your parsed values.
- Keep in mind that a "compact" or summary format is the right default for feeding an agent,
  while `json` is right for a script that needs every field.

> [!WARNING]
> **Never pipe build, lint, or test output through a filter to make it shorter.** That is a
> different situation and the rule there is the opposite — see
> [`coding-dev.md` §2](./coding-dev.md). Structured output flags are for data; `grep` on
> diagnostics hides warnings.

---

## 4. Orient Before Starting

Before beginning work in an unfamiliar project or one you have not touched recently, spend a
moment establishing what has already happened. Cheap, and it prevents the most expensive
failure mode: rebuilding something that already exists.

In rough order of value:
1. **The project's own instructions** — `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, `.rules`, `CONTRIBUTING.md`,
   `README.md`. Read them before touching code.
2. **Recent history** — `git log --oneline -20`, and `git status --short` to see what is
   already in flight so you do not clobber it.
3. **Prior work records** — session/conversation history tooling, issue trackers, or notes
   files, scoped to the project directory.
4. **The code itself** — `grep` for the symbol before trusting any document that says it is
   missing.

> [!CAUTION]
> **Task documents are leads, not facts.** A `TODO.md` entry can be stale, duplicated, or
> simply wrong — including when it sounds confident and especially when it sounds familiar.
> Verify against the code before acting on one. A single `grep` is cheaper than rediscovering
> that the work shipped last week.

---

## 5. Where Scripts Live

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Never write a standalone script directly into a `PATH` directory** (`~/.local/bin`,
> `/usr/local/bin`, or similar). Write it into a **dedicated scripts directory** that is
> version-controlled, then **symlink** it into `PATH`.

```bash
# write the script to its real home
$EDITOR /path/to/scripts/my-tool.sh
chmod +x /path/to/scripts/my-tool.sh

# then expose it
ln -s /path/to/scripts/my-tool.sh ~/.local/bin/my-tool
```

**Why:** one versioned source of truth. A script living directly in `PATH` is invisible to
version control, easy to clobber on a reinstall, impossible to diff, and indistinguishable
from a package-manager-owned binary sitting beside it. The symlink makes the provenance
obvious — `ls -l` shows exactly where the real file is.

The same applies within a project: scripts belong in `scripts/`, referenced by the build
system, not scattered at the repository root.

---

## 6. Destructive and Outward-Facing Commands

- **Look at the target before deleting or overwriting it.** Inspect it first — the cost of a
  wrong `rm` or a wrong overwrite is unbounded and the check is one command.
- **Read-only first.** When exploring an unfamiliar tool, use its inspection subcommands
  (`status`, `list`, `show`, `get`) before any mutating one.
- **Mutating commands that rewrite shared configuration** — syncing settings across machines,
  purging caches or state, patching installed applications — should be confirmed before
  running, even when they are reversible in principle.
- **Never use real data as scratch space.** Real accounts, real configuration directories,
  live services, and the user's actual files are not disposable test fixtures. Use temporary
  directories and disposable targets.
- Anything that sends, publishes, deploys, or purchases is outward-facing: confirm first, and
  treat approval as applying to that one action rather than the category.

---

## 7. Environment Constraints

- **Entering a container or changing shells resets the working directory.** Chain `cd` inside
  the same command string rather than relying on it persisting:
  ```bash
  container-run <name> -- bash -c "cd /path/to/project && make"
  ```
- **Verify what actually exists rather than assuming from documentation.** Container names,
  tool versions, and installed toolchains drift. A one-command check (`<tool> list`,
  `<tool> --version`, `command -v <tool>`) costs nothing and prevents a confident invocation
  of something that was removed months ago.
- **Check for an optional dependency before the step that needs it**, and fail loudly if it
  is missing. A packaging step that silently skips when its tool is absent ships an
  incomplete release.
- **Don't saturate the machine.** A full build consuming every core makes the workstation
  unusable. When something latency-sensitive is running, reduce the job count and `nice` the
  work — and say that you did.

---

## 8. Related Skills
- [`coding-dev.md`](./coding-dev.md) — writing the code these tools build and test.
- [`code-languages/bash.md`](./code-languages/bash.md) — writing the scripts themselves:
  strict mode, quoting, build-gate structure, destructive-command guards.