Under the Hood: The Craftsmanship of Creating High-Performance CLIs in Golang

Command-line interfaces (CLIs) are fundamentally an important component of developer productivity and automation, yet many developers hesitate to build their own tools due to perceived complexity. In this talk, I will share my journey of going from no prior CLI experience to creating a fully functional, user-friendly CLI application in just four weeks using Golang and the Cobra library. The session will delve into the Unix philosophy as the foundation for understanding effective CLI design from the ground up, emphasizing simplicity, composability, and doing one thing well. Attendees will learn how to craft intuitive commands with human-first design principles, balancing clear, minimal output with actionable feedback.

We will explore Cobra’s powerful features, including subcommands, flags, shell completions, and intelligent suggestions, demonstrating how they accelerate and enhance the user experience. The talk will also cover advanced topics, including integrating natural language processing (NLP) to enable conversational command parsing, best practices for testing and configuration management, and strategies for error handling and security. Through code examples and my insights, this session equips developers to build scalable, maintainable CLIs that help users and fit into modern workflows.

Target Audience:

• Go developers and software engineers interested in CLI development

• DevOps practitioners and automation enthusiasts seeking better tooling

• Beginners eager to learn practical CLI building from scratch

• Technical leads and architects exploring scalable CLI design patterns

• Anyone curious about blending traditional CLI design with modern NLP techniques

This talk aligns with FOSS United’s mission by empowering developers to create open, efficient, and user-friendly CLI tools that can be freely shared and extended within the community.

Key Highlights:

• Applying Unix philosophy to design modular, composable CLI commands

• Human-first CLI design: usability, discoverability, and meaningful output

• Deep dive into Cobra’s architecture and advanced features

• Structuring Go CLI projects for scalability and maintainability

• Integrating NLP to enhance developer interaction and command discovery

• Best practices for testing, configuration, logging, and error handling

• Performance optimizations and security considerations for CLI tools