Path 02 — CLI

A command-line tool: users install it, run it, and trust exit codes and help text. Still prefer one primary artifact and one repo unless shared libraries are already forcing your hand.

Assumes you can already ship a thin change (Path 01 habits). Add DX, tests, and packaging — not a platform.

What “CLI” means here

• npx, Homebrew, cargo, pipx, go install, or a binary release
• Interface = flags, subcommands, stdin/stdout/stderr, docs in --help + README
• Success = a stranger completes the primary job once without a Zoom call

What to ignore (for now)

Skip	Why
Multi-service mesh / many deploy targets	One CLI binary or package
Fancy agent crews for every fix	Clear done-when + tests beat swarm
Full product strategy tree	Thin PRODUCT/README; DocSlime only if multi-audience
Monorepo “just in case”	Extract packages when duplication hurts — kiss / repos monorepo

Reading order

1. Lifecycle: How work flows — usually Deliver / Operate
2. Architecture: Architecture · Language
3. Concepts: prior shape + Stop Conditions · Work Ownership · Skills as Named Cuts
4. Strategies: Orient · Track Work · Diagnose and Fix · Craft and Harden · Ship
5. Practices to emphasize: Test It · Research It · Issues · Recon Issue · Check Readiness · Repos (ci harden lightly) · Document It · Observe It only for crash/telemetry you will actually read

Agent experience matters: treat the CLI as something coding agents will invoke — clear help, stable flags, non-zero on failure (experience mindset; DocSlime experience/ if you keep docs).

Starter DAG

flowchart TD
  A[Vision: one job the CLI must do] --> B[research-it: UX of similar CLIs]
  B --> C[Thin vertical: happy path command]
  C --> D[test-it: unit + one smoke invocation]
  D --> E[document-it: install + examples + exit codes]
  E --> F[repos ci: test on PR + release workflow]
  F --> G[issues/pulls for changes - check-readiness]
  G --> H[Publish artifact - ship-it / release]

Right-sized tasks:

1. Name the one job and non-goals (what it will never do).
2. Implement the happy-path command with real --help.
3. Tests that fail when the job regresses.
4. Install instructions a cold reader can follow.
5. CI + a release you can repeat.

Skills cheat sheet

Moment	Skill
Design the interface	research-it · kiss
Prove behavior	test-it · check-readiness
Bugs	diagnose-bug · fix-it
Packaging/CI	repos ci · repos ci harden
Track work	issues · pulls · merge-it
Lost	idk-now

Graduate when

• Importable Python package as the product → Path 03
• Companion compute host → Compute
• Multiple binaries/packages, shared libs across languages, or several deploy targets (APIs, workers, sites) → Path 04
• The CLI is only a thin client of a larger system already in a monorepo — join Path 04 instead of pretending it’s still “just a CLI”

Follow-Up Prompt

Want kiss on the proposed subcommand surface, or recon issue for the first vertical slice?