cli-docs-guidelines

A set of rules for writing and reviewing command-line documentation. It focuses on explaining commands in the order people use them and introducing concepts and options gradually.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when writing CLI guides, documenting commands, reviewing command references, or updating usage instructions.
Why use it?
It helps documentation work for both beginners running their first command and experienced users scanning for details. Clear ordering reduces confusion about which command or option to use next.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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 skills/celestoai/smolvm/cli-docs-guidelines
Any agent
npx skills add CelestoAI/SmolVM --skill cli-docs-guidelines
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/CelestoAI/SmolVM

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 50 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 751 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 $0.00050 $0.00751
Opus 5 $0.00025 $0.00376
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.00150
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00075

Measured 3d ago against content hash 7a3ec3f82069, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

cli-docs-guidelines 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 3d ago.

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.

.agents/skills/cli-docs-guidelines/SKILL.md · 87 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 87 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLI Documentation Guidelines

Review or write CLI docs following these principles. CLI docs serve two audiences: newcomers running their first command, and experienced users scanning for flags.

Core Principles

All README Guidelines apply here. In addition:

1. Logical command ordering

Commands must appear in the order a user would run them. A command should never reference output or state from a command that appears later in the docs.

Wrongstop appears before the user knows how to list:

smolvm stop <vm_id>
smolvm list

Right — create, inspect, then destroy:

smolvm create --name my-sandbox
smolvm list
smolvm stop my-sandbox

2. Introduce a concept before its flags

Show the base command before showing any flags or subcommands. Each flag is a new concept — don't introduce two flags in the same example unless they always go together.

Wrong--os and --name are both new:

smolvm create --os debian --name my-debian-sandbox

Right--name first, then a separate example for --os:

# Create a sandbox with a name
smolvm create --name my-sandbox

# Use a different OS image
smolvm create --os debian --name my-debian-sandbox

3. Show expected output after commands that produce it

When a command prints a value the user needs (an ID, a URL, a status), show it. The reader should never have to run the command to find out what it returns.

smolvm browser start --live
# Session: sess_a1b2c3
# Live view: http://localhost:6080

4. One topic per section

Don't mix sandbox lifecycle commands with browser session commands in the same section. Each distinct workflow gets its own heading.

5. Flags reference comes after prose explanation

Never lead with a flags table. Explain what the command does in plain language first, then list flags for readers who want to go deeper.

Review Checklist

  • Commands appear in the order a user would run them
  • Every placeholder (<vm_id>, <session_id>) is introduced by a prior command or clearly labelled as "output from the previous step"
  • Each code block introduces at most one new flag or subcommand
  • Commands that print useful output show that output as a comment
  • Conceptually distinct workflows (e.g. sandbox vs. browser) are in separate sections
  • Flags/options table, if present, appears after the prose description
  • No jargon (SSH, TAP device, CIDR, firecracker, QEMU) without a plain-language explanation on first use

Read the full file on GitHub · 87 lines

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. 3d ago First seen · 87 lines · 50 tokens per session scan A 7a3ec3f82069

Subscribe to this mod's changes

cli-docs-guidelines is a skill published in the GitHub repository CelestoAI/SmolVM (866 stars, last pushed 6d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 50 tokens to every session and 751 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. 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.

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