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.
npx agentmods add skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/designing-clisnpx skills add technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins --skill designing-clisgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-pluginsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/designing-clis)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/designing-clis"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/designing-clis.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>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.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00061 | $0.01008 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00030 | $0.00504 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00012 | $0.00202 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00006 | $0.00101 |
Grade A, and why
designing-clis 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 6d 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.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 108 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Designing CLIs
Overview
Modern CLIs are conversations between human and machine. Great CLIs feel discoverable, responsive, and forgiving. Poor CLIs leave users guessing, waiting, and frustrated.
Core principle: Every CLI interaction should answer: "What happened? What can I do? What's next?"
When to Use
Building:
- Creating new CLI commands or tools
- Designing output format, error messages, progress indicators
- Planning CLI architecture (flags, subcommands, interaction model)
Improving:
- Enhancing existing CLI user experience
- Adding features to existing commands
- Making CLI "less confusing" or "easier to use"
Reviewing:
- Auditing CLI code for UX issues
- Responding to user complaints about difficulty
- Troubleshooting discoverability problems
Quick Decision Framework
| Working On | Read This |
|---|---|
| New CLI under time pressure | practical-patterns.md (Priority Checklist) |
| Adding to existing CLI | practical-patterns.md (Working with Existing CLIs) |
| Fixing "confusing" CLI | practical-patterns.md (CLI UX Audit Checklist) |
| Command structure, flags | ux-principles.md (Familiarity, Discoverability) |
| Output formatting | visual-techniques.md (Layout, Spacing, Color) |
| Error messages, help text | practical-patterns.md (Error Message Patterns) |
| Overall architecture | ux-principles.md (complete overview) |
The Six UX Principles
- Familiarity - Use known conventions (--help, --version, verb-noun)
- Discoverability - Guide users (help text, prompts, examples)
- Feedback - Show what's happening (progress, confirmations, state)
- Clarity - Structure output (spacing, alignment, hierarchy)
- Flow - Minimize friction (shortcuts, defaults, scriptability)
- Forgiveness - Handle errors gracefully (clear messages, suggestions, safety)
See ux-principles.md for detailed guidance and examples.
The Five Visual Techniques
- Color - Semantic meaning (green=success, red=error, yellow=warning)
- Spacing - Visual grouping (blank lines, indentation, alignment)
- Layout - Structured regions (panels, blocks, persistent areas)
- Symbols - Fast signifiers (✓ ✗ ⚠ →, checkboxes, progress indicators)
- Structured Feedback - Narrative output (phases, lists, visible progress)
What ships with it
26 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
- CLAUDE.md 3.3 KB
- practical-patterns.md 6.4 KB
- reading-list.md 4.1 KB
- research/cli_feedback_blog.md 6.2 KB
- research/ux/01-ux-principles.md 8.4 KB
- research/ux/02-ux-design-guide.md 6.5 KB
- research/ux/02.5-crafting-delightful-command-line-experiences.md 6.7 KB
- research/ux/03-readling-list.md 6.5 KB
- research/ux/04-manifest.md 2.8 KB
- research/ux/cli_ux_heuristics_checklist.md 2.8 KB
- research/ux/cli_ux_research_master_prompt.md 3.5 KB
- research/visual/00-research-prompt.md 5.4 KB
- research/visual/01-visual-design-principles.md 4.9 KB
- research/visual/02-playbook.md 6.9 KB
- research/visual/03-reading-list.md 3.0 KB
- TESTING.md 5.1 KB
- tests/baseline/scenario-1-time-pressure.md 2.5 KB
- tests/baseline/scenario-2-existing-codebase.md 3.5 KB
- tests/baseline/scenario-3-troubleshooting.md 4.1 KB
- tests/README.md 3.9 KB
- tests/scenarios.md 5.6 KB
- tests/templates/analysis-template.md 4.5 KB
- tests/templates/loophole-checklist.md 5.4 KB
- tests/templates/scenario-prompt-template.md 4.6 KB
- ux-principles.md 6.8 KB
- visual-techniques.md 7.8 KB
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.
- 6d ago First seen · 108 lines · 61 tokens per session scan A 52a570ec804e
designing-clis is a skill published in the GitHub repository technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins (10 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 61 tokens to every session and 1,008 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 2026-08-31.
Other skills, from other repositories
absolute-ui
Build polished, intentional UIs with concrete CSS/Tailwind values — typography, color, layout, spacing, dark mode, accessibility, animations, components. Encodes specific, opinionated rules with exact values, not vague advice. Covers buttons, cards, forms, tables, navigation, dashboards, landing pages, onboarding, and…
fullstack-guide
全栈开发规范百科全书 (React/TS/Node/Supabase). Modern patterns including Suspense, lazy loading, useSuspenseQuery, file organization with features directory, performance optimization, and TypeScript best practices. Use when creating components, pages, features, fetching data, styling, routing, or working with frontend/backend…
harden
Improve interface resilience through better error handling, i18n support, text overflow handling, and edge case management. Makes interfaces robust and production-ready. Use when the user asks to harden, make production-ready, handle edge cases, add error states, or fix overflow and i18n issues.
liquid-glass
Apple Liquid Glass design system. Use when building UI with translucent, depth-aware glass morphism following Apple's design language. Provides CSS tokens, component patterns, dark/light mode, and animation specs.
angular-architect
Generates Angular 17+ standalone components, configures advanced routing with lazy loading and guards, implements NgRx state management, applies RxJS patterns, and optimizes bundle performance. Use when building Angular 17+ applications with standalone components or signals, setting up NgRx stores, establishing RxJS…
extract-source-sample
Given the path to a finished content-goose ad-run folder, extract everything that defines that ad — recipe shot list, VO script, characters, voices, world, atom-skills, master mp4 — and emit a source-sample.json in the exact shape the upload-ad-sample skill writes to the Goose Ads library. Also links every character…