Introduction

CLI Framework is a batteries-included toolkit for building command-line tools in TypeScript. It is to CLI development what Next.js is to React — a framework that handles the boilerplate so you can focus on your features.

The Problem

Building a polished CLI tool today requires stitching together 10+ libraries:

Capability	Typical Library
Argument parsing	commander / yargs
Interactive prompts	inquirer / prompts
Colored output	chalk
Tables	cli-table3
Spinners	ora
Shell completion	tabtab
Config loading	cosmiconfig
Error formatting	hand-written
Plugin system	hand-written
Update notifications	update-notifier

More boilerplate than business logic.

The Solution

CLI Framework provides all of these capabilities in a single, cohesive package — with zero runtime dependencies.

// commands/deploy.ts
import { defineCommand } from '@cliffx/core';

export default defineCommand({
  name: 'deploy',
  description: 'Deploy to production',
  options: {
    env: { type: 'string', default: 'staging', description: 'Target environment' },
    force: { type: 'boolean', default: false, alias: 'f' },
  },
  async run({ options, ui }) {
    const confirmed = await ui.confirm(`Deploy to ${options.env}?`);
    if (!confirmed) return;

    await ui.spinner('Building...', () => build());
    ui.success('Deployed!');
  },
});

Design Philosophy

• Convention over Configuration — sensible defaults that you can override when needed
• Progressive Disclosure — simple things are simple, advanced things are possible
• TypeScript-first — every API is fully typed with inference
• Zero Runtime Dependencies — ships with only Node.js standard library

Comparison

Feature	CLI Framework	oclif	commander	yargs
Argument parsing	✅	✅	✅	✅
Subcommand discovery	✅ auto	✅ convention	❌ manual	❌
Interactive UI	✅	❌	❌	❌
Plugin system	✅	✅	❌	❌
Shell completion	✅ auto	✅ manual	❌	❌
Config auto-loading	✅	❌	❌	❌
Test utilities	✅	❌	❌	❌
TypeScript types	✅	❌	❌	❌
Zero dependencies	✅	❌	❌	❌