standard-cli-command-structure

A set of coding rules for command-line programs that keeps command setup separate from the code that checks inputs, runs actions, and prints results.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when building or reviewing CLI commands, especially when separating command files from handler files and handling known errors.
Why use it?
It makes commands easier to test, change, and organize, while giving users clearer errors and success messages.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/packmindhub/packmind/standard-cli-command-structure
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PackmindHub/packmind

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 357 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00357
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00179
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00071
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00036

Measured yesterday against content hash 58a41a3e2153, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

standard-cli-command-structure scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

apps/cli/.cursor/rules/packmind/standard-cli-command-structure.mdc · 21 lines

What it actually says

Standard: CLI Command Structure

Enforce clear separation of concerns between command definition (parameters and metadata) and handler logic (validation, execution, and output) in apps/cli commands to improve testability, maintainabi... :

  • Call exit(1) after outputting error messages and exit(0) after success messages
  • Create a separate handler file (ending in Handler.ts) that exports the handler function for each command
  • Define command files (ending in Command.ts) using cmd-ts with only name, description, and args—do not implement handler logic inline
  • Execute the use case through the hexa instance and capture the response
  • Handle known domain errors explicitly with catch blocks checking error types (e.g., PackageNotFoundError, AccessDenied)
  • Include helpful contextual messages with outputHelp() when domain errors occur (e.g., suggest relevant commands to run)
  • Instantiate PackmindCliHexa with PackmindLogger within the handler after validation
  • Organize commands in subdirectories under infra/commands/ grouped by their hexa or domain (e.g., infra/commands/auth/, infra/commands/standard/)
  • Reference the corresponding handler function from the handler property of the command definition
  • Use outputError() for error messages, outputSuccess() for success messages, and outputHelp() for guidance from consoleLogger utilities
  • Validate and transform input arguments at the start of the handler before any business logic
  • Write comprehensive tests for all handler functions covering validation, success paths, and all error scenarios

Full standard is available here for further request: CLI Command Structure

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 21 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 58a41a3e2153

Subscribe to this mod's changes

standard-cli-command-structure is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository PackmindHub/packmind (306 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 357 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.