DevOps Paradox DOP 303: How To Develop a CLI in 2025
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Feb 19, 2025 Wesley Beary, a founding engineer at Anchor, shares his insights on developing command-line interfaces (CLIs) in 2025. He discusses the shift from Ruby to Go and the essential tools that enhance cross-platform compatibility. The conversation covers challenges like user-friendly design, data encryption, and maintaining simplicity amidst complexity. Wesley also emphasizes the importance of collaboration and iterative design in creating effective CLIs, ensuring they meet both immediate needs and long-term functional goals.
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From Ruby to Go Challenges
- Wesley Beary shares pain points with Ruby CLIs due to language and distribution challenges.
- Transitioning to Go improved distribution but introduced new development challenges for him.
Golden File Testing for CLIs
- Use golden file testing to capture CLI output and prevent regression.
- Tackle flakey tests caused by transient UI elements by recording output as frames.
REST & Spec-First API Design
- Wesley prefers REST APIs with OpenAPI spec-first development for reliable CLI integration.
- Spec-driven mocks enable parallel CLI and API development, reducing iteration cost and friction.