I built my first CLI tool five years ago. It automated a tedious task that took me 30 minutes every morning. Now it takes 30 seconds.
Since then, I've built dozens of CLI tools. They're the highest ROI investment I make in my development workflow.
Why CLIs
Graphical interfaces are great for discovery. CLIs are great for repetition.
If you do something more than once, automate it. If you do it frequently, build a CLI.
The terminal is already your home. Make it more productive.
What I've Built
Here's what CLI tools have done for me:
- Project scaffolding: New projects in seconds, not minutes
- Database operations: Migrations, seeds, backups without remembering SQL
- AI workflows: Prompt management, evaluation, deployment
- Deployments: One-command deploys with rollback
- Monitoring: Quick health checks, log tailing, metrics
Each tool started as a pain point. Each became an investment.
The Skills Pay Off
Building CLIs teaches you:
- Interface design: CLIs have constraints that sharpen your thinking
- Tooling: You understand systems better
- Automation mindset: You start seeing other things to automate
These skills transfer to everything else you build.
How to Start
Don't try to build a big tool. Start small:
- Find a pain: What do you do repeatedly that's tedious?
- Script it first: Bash script, Python, whatever. Just solve the immediate problem.
- Polish over time: Add flags, error handling, help text.
- Share it: Someone else probably has the same pain.
What to Use
For Python: Click or Typer For Go: Cobra or urfave/cli For JavaScript: Commander or oclif For Rust: Clap
They're all good. Pick one and learn it.
The Bottom Line
Your terminal is your workspace. Invest in it.
You don't need to build complex tools. You need tools that solve your problems. Start small. Accumulate tools over time.
Five years from now, you'll have a toolkit that makes you dramatically more productive.
That's worth more than any IDE.
The best tool is the one you build yourself.