# dotnet/command-line-api

Command line parsing, invocation, and rendering of terminal output.

Repository: https://github.com/dotnet/command-line-api
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/command-line-api
Homepage: https://github.com/dotnet/command-line-api/wiki
Language: C#
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: command-line, parser, parsing, terminal, posix, completions, commandlineparser, system-commandline, dotnet-suggest
Last push: 2026-08-26T22:42:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 83/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 53, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3060, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 232, "gap_med": 31.5, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3674, forks 431 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:13.598650+00:00)

## What it is
System.CommandLine is a .NET library for command line parsing, model binding, invocation, and rendering of terminal output, plus the dotnet-suggest tool for shell completions. It is maintained under the dotnet organization and documented on Microsoft Learn.

## Use cases
- parse command line arguments in a .NET app
- build a CLI tool in C#
- add shell tab completions to a command line program
- bind command line options to strongly typed models
- render help text and terminal output for a CLI
- implement POSIX-style options and subcommands

## When to choose
- you are building a command line application or tool in .NET
- you want first-party Microsoft-supported parsing with model binding
- you need shell completion support for your CLI

## When to avoid
- you are not on the .NET platform
- you need a full CLI framework with scaffolding and plugins rather than a parsing library
- you need a stable long-term API, as the library has had evolving pre-release APIs

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: parser, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, parsers
- platform: cross-platform, dotnet, cli
- tags: system-commandline, shell-completions, posix, dotnet-suggest, csharp, command-line

## Member repositories
- dotnet/command-line-api (main) score 83

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:13.598650+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 2026-08-29T18:31:17.539118+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/dotnet/command-line-api (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:13.598650+00:00, sha 0847283cf4fc)
  - homepage: https://github.com/dotnet/command-line-api/wiki (fetched 2026-08-29T09:25:16.652813+00:00, sha 17def462ed95)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.