lirantal / nodejs-cli-apps-best-practices
A bad CLI can easily discourage users from interacting with it. Building successful CLIs requires attention to detail and empathy for the user in order to create a good user experience. It is very easy to get wrong.
In this guide I have compiled a list of best practices across areas of focus which aim to optimize for an ideal user experience when interacting with a CLI application.
This section deals with best practices concerned with creating beautiful and high-value user experience Node.js command line applications.
❌ Otherwise: Users may get frustrated when a CLI's syntax for arguments, options, or command parameters deviate from the de facto Unix standards they are used to.
Unix-like operating systems popularized the use of the command line and tools such as awk, sed. Such tools have effectively standardized the behavior of command line options (aka flags), options-arguments, and other operands.
✅ Do: Put workflows in place that assist the user to interact with the CLI successfully, when otherwise such interactions would result in errors and frustration.
