# muellan/clipp

easy to use, powerful & expressive command line argument parsing for modern C++ / single header / usage & doc generation

Repository: https://github.com/muellan/clipp
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/clipp
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: cpp, cpp11, cli, command-line, argument-parser, argument-parsing, commandline, cmdline-parser, option, options, options-parsing, option-parser, header-only, argv, man-page, nested-alternatives, args, argv-parser
Last push: 2024-05-30T08:13:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3220, "days_push": 825, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1323, forks 154 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:22.152548+00:00)

## What it is
clipp is a single-header, MIT-licensed C++11/14/17 library for expressive command line argument parsing. It supports options, positional values, commands, nested alternatives, and automatic generation of usage lines and man pages.

## Use cases
- parse command line arguments in a C++ program
- define CLI options and flags declaratively
- generate usage help and man pages from argument definitions
- handle subcommands and nested alternative argument groups
- validate argv input with custom value filters

## When to choose
- you want a header-only, dependency-free argument parser for modern C++
- you need expressive interfaces with commands, alternatives, and joinable flags
- you want automatic usage/man-page generation

## When to avoid
- your project is not C++ or predates C++11
- you need runtime plugin-style CLI extension or GUI configuration
- you prefer a full-featured framework with config files and subcommand scaffolding

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: parser, cli, developer-tools, documentation
- domain: developer-tools, parsers
- platform: cpp, cross-platform, windows
- tags: header-only, argument-parsing, cpp11, man-page-generation, single-header, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- muellan/clipp (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:22.152548+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:47:05.769008+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/muellan/clipp (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:22.152548+00:00, sha 4af8914fa029)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.