Skill for LLM agents · MIT · version 1.0.0

CLI Skill UI

A skill that builds and audits command line tools which survive a pipe and still look like something. The two goals are not in tension: the discipline that makes output safe to redirect, streams kept apart and terminal detection done properly, is exactly what allows the visual layer to be applied without breaking a script downstream.

Bash Python TypeScript Go Rust 34 references 3 scripts

Two modes, opposite defaults

Build

A new tool, or a new command inside one. Everything the skill carries becomes a default to apply: command shape, flags, help text, exit codes, and the visual identity on top of them.

Audit

A tool that already works. Here the skill reads and runs, and does not modify. Findings are ranked by what they cost the user, not by distance from its own taste, and a tool with its own visual language keeps it. Working behaviour is a specification, because scripts depend on it.

What it covers

Behaviour, first

Subcommand shape, option syntax and defaults
Standard output against standard error, and structured output for machines
Terminal detection, and what changes when there is no terminal or the run is automated
Help and usage text, error messages and exit codes
Configuration precedence between flags, environment and files
Prompts, confirmation, shell completion, accessibility and translation

Appearance, second

A teal to blue to violet gradient as the identity, with a fallback where colour is off
Block letter banner, spinners, progress and live panels
Tables, trees, diffs and streaming output that stay legible when redirected
Keyboard-driven interfaces in the shape of Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Crush and lazygit

Seen working

The example that ships with the skill is pseq, a tool for protein FASTA analysis. Same banner, same table, same behaviour under a pipe.

Terminal showing the pseq banner in block letters over a teal to violet gradient, with the command help below — The launcher and its help

Terminal showing a table of protein statistics with columns for identifier, length, molecular weight and isoelectric point — A table that survives redirection

What comes in the box

Thirty-four reference files One per topic: streams, flags, exit codes, colour, motion, palette, and one stack guide each for Bash, Python, TypeScript, Go and Rust

An audit script Runs the command several times and reports what breaks. Point it at a read-only subcommand: it never audits something that writes or deletes

Theme and templates The palette as data, a spinner set, and starting projects for Python and TypeScript

A worked example pseq, with its tests, so the conventions can be read as code rather than as prose

Install

A skill that lives only in its repository cannot be loaded, whatever a listing says. Installing is what makes it available by name.

git clone https://github.com/madsondeluna/skill-cli-devops-and-ui
cd skill-cli-devops-and-ui
make install          # copies into ~/.claude/skills
make verify-install   # fails when the installed copy has drifted

Repository madsondeluna/skill-cli-devops-and-ui The other skills Visual language, command design and scientific review