Getting Started

One of the philosophies behind cli is that an API should be playful and full of discovery. So a cli app can be as little as one line of code in main().

package main

import (
    "os"
    "context"

    "github.com/urfave/cli/v3"
)

func main() {
    (&cli.Command{}).Run(context.Background(), os.Args)
}

This app will run and show help text, but is not very useful.

$ wl-paste > hello.go
$ go build hello.go
$ ./hello
NAME:
   hello - A new cli application

USAGE:
   hello [global options] [command [command options]] [arguments...]

COMMANDS:
   help, h  Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --help, -h  show help (default: false)

Let's add an action to execute and some help documentation:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "os"
    "context"

    "github.com/urfave/cli/v3"
)

func main() {
    cmd := &cli.Command{
        Name:  "boom",
        Usage: "make an explosive entrance",
        Action: func(context.Context, *cli.Command) error {
            fmt.Println("boom! I say!")
            return nil
        },
    }

    if err := cmd.Run(context.Background(), os.Args); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Running this already gives you a ton of functionality, plus support for things like subcommands and flags, which are covered below.