CLI tools

• TyperCLI apps with type hints and zero effort

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 20.2k GitHub stars

  VerdictCLI tools in minutes instead of hours.

  CatchComplex CLI patterns sometimes fight the abstraction. Very dynamic interfaces may need lower-level Click access.

• Shopify CLIThe development tool every Shopify dev needs

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 758 GitHub stars

  VerdictNot optional—just install it and move on.

  CatchOccasional bugs with authentication flows. Resource usage can be heavy. Some advanced workflows still require manual setup.

• clapCommand line argument parser for Rust

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 16.8k GitHub stars

  VerdictThe CLI argument parser most Rust projects use.

  CatchCompile times increase with complex CLIs. Some advanced patterns require builder API. Error messages could be clearer.

• OpenAI Codex CLIApache-2.0 OpenAI agent: CLI, IDE, app and cloud

  Free / OSS · Freemium · 130k GitHub stars

  VerdictOpenAI’s answer to terminal agents — open CLI, paid models; budget the plan or the API.

  CatchThe CLI is open source, but the models are not free: you pay through ChatGPT plan quotas or API spend. Codex Web runs on OpenAI’s cloud, not on your machine. The install.sh, brew and npm routes are supply-chain choices, so pin a release binary when that matters. Vs Claude Code or OpenCode: this is OpenAI’s first-party agent, tied to ChatGPT plans or OpenAI API keys.

• Gemini CLIGoogle open-source terminal agent powered by Gemini

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 107k GitHub stars

  VerdictGoogle terminal agent. OSS CLI remains, but consumer quota was cut 2026-06-18; Antigravity (agy) is the consumer path. Gemini-bound by design.

  CatchGemini-bound lock-in—not model-agnostic like Goose or Crush. Consumer access (free/Pro/Ultra Google login) ended 2026-06-18; enterprise and API keys still work. Don't build on the old Google-login quota path. The OSS CLI remains. Antigravity CLI is the successor, not a 1:1 swap. Preview/nightly channels move fast; pin stable for production workflows. Enterprise path pushes you toward Vertex AI and Google Cloud project setup.

• agent-browserVercel Labs Rust CLI with compact a11y refs for agents

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 44.4k GitHub stars

  VerdictThe CLI browser for agents that want refs, not a full DOM dump. Restore or lose the session.

  CatchDefault idle timeout is about one hour: the headless daemon shuts down and discards transient tabs/state unless you passed `--restore` (or another restore key). Headed, Safari/iOS WebDriver, and user-attached browsers are exempt; cloud-provider browsers are not. Tune with `--idle-timeout` or `AGENT_BROWSER_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS`; `0` disables. This is CDP Chrome, not stealth—anti-bot pages will still block you.

• Stripe CLIOfficial Stripe terminal for webhooks, events, and API objects

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 2.2k GitHub stars

  VerdictInstall it. Then still pay Stripe when money moves.

  CatchThe CLI is free; card charges are not. See stripe.com/pricing for processing rates. Live mode needs a real secret. Dispute fees are on Stripe, not on this binary.

• KamalDeploy Docker containers to your own VMs with one CLI

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 14.7k GitHub stars

  VerdictThe honest alternative to a PaaS when you already have VMs.

  CatchYou still run Docker hosts. This is not a PaaS. Networking, disks, and what-if-the-VM-dies remain your problem. Kamal 2 changed proxy defaults — read the current docs, not a 2024 blog post.

• AppriseBSD-2-Clause CLI that talks to a hundred notifiers

  Free / OSS · BSD-2-Clause · 17.6k GitHub stars

  VerdictThe notification Swiss Army CLI. BSD, no meter, no product SKU.

  CatchNot a hosted inbox. There is no pricing page — that is the path. You bring every backend (SMTP, Slack tokens, Twilio). This is a notifier, not ntfy and not Novu.

• AtlasApache-2.0 schema-as-code CLI; Cloud CI/governance is paid

  Free / OSS · Freemium · 8.8k GitHub stars

  VerdictApache-2.0 schema CLI. Cloud CI/governance is paid; CLI is the free path.

  CatchVs Flyway/Liquibase/Prisma migrate: schema-as-code + auto-planned diffs, not only ordered SQL scripts. Atlas Cloud (CI automation, drift, governance) is a separate paid product — Starter free-limited, Pro adds per-dev/project fees. Free path is the OSS CLI.

• OpenTofuMPL-2.0 Linux Foundation Terraform fork; truly OSS IaC

  Free / OSS · MPL-2.0 · 30.6k GitHub stars

  VerdictMPL-2.0 Terraform-compatible IaC. The OSS license answer to BSL.

  CatchVs Terraform/Pulumi: license-first fork of Terraform 1.5-era lineage — not Pulumi programming-language IaC. Not HashiCorp Cloud/Enterprise features. Provider edge cases exist; verify before big migrations.

• dbmateMIT framework-agnostic SQL migration CLI; single Go binary

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 7.5k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT SQL migration CLI. Tiny free forever; not a schema platform.

  CatchVs Atlas/Flyway/Bytebase: ordered SQL files only — no declarative planner, no review UI. You own ordering and rollbacks. Distinct from goose-style twins by DX focus plus dump.

• CosignApache-2.0 Sigstore keyless container/artifact signing CLI

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 6.4k GitHub stars

  VerdictApache-2.0 Sigstore signing. Free CLI; policy engines are separate.

  CatchSigning CLI + public-good Sigstore infra — not a full policy admission controller (pair with Kyverno/OPA). Offline/air-gap needs different PKI. Registry must support referrers/OCI artifacts cleanly.

• Paddle CLIMIT community CLI for full Paddle Billing API; agent-native

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 1 GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT Paddle Billing CLI. Free tool; Paddle merchant + MoR fees separate.

  CatchCommunity CLI — not an official Paddle Inc product; API drift risk. Still need a Paddle merchant account (MoR fees apply). Vs Stripe CLI: Paddle-only. Thin MCP forks exist; this is the general CLI.

• PromptfooMIT LLM evals & red-teaming CLI; Community free, 10k probes/mo

  Free / OSS · Freemium · 26.2k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT eval/red-team CLI. Free core; probe cap + Enterprise sales wall.

  CatchVs DeepEval/Braintrust: YAML/CLI-first, not pytest-native Python or Braintrust SaaS. Community caps red-team probes (~10k/mo); Enterprise/On-Prem are contact-sales (SSO, dashboards, dedicated runner). LLM API costs are yours. Acquisition governance is a multi-year bet.

• GitleaksMIT secret scanner for git/dirs/stdin; CLI free, org Action needs free key

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 30.2k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT secrets CLI. Free forever; org Action wants free license key.

  CatchMaintainer marks feature-complete (security patches; focus shifting to Betterleaks). Official Action for GitHub org repos needs a free license key from gitleaks.io — personal accounts exempt. Not a full ASVS/SAST suite. False positives need allowlists.

• GrypeApache-2.0 SBOM-first vulnerability scanner from Anchore; free CLI

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 13.1k GitHub stars

  VerdictApache-2.0 SBOM vuln scanner. Free CLI; Enterprise is the paid cousin.

  CatchVuln scanner — not Trivy's IaC/secrets swiss-army, not Cosign signing, not Anchore Enterprise governance UI. You still triage CVEs. Anchore monetizes Enterprise separately.

• LefthookMIT Go manager for polyglot repo git-hooks

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 8.9k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT polyglot hooks. Free CLI; not CI.

  CatchVs Husky: polyglot hooks; not a CI product. Local only. Teams still need a shared install path.

• justCC0-1.0 command runner — modern Makefile replacement

  Free / OSS · CC0-1.0 · 36.4k GitHub stars

  VerdictCC0 command runner. Free forever.

  CatchModern Makefile replacement; not Taskfile. No implicit build DAG like Make. You still pick how CI invokes recipes. Distinct from package.json scripts if the repo is polyglot.

• PlaywrightApache-2.0 cross-browser library and CLI

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 98.2k GitHub stars

  VerdictApache-2.0 browser library. Free; MCP wrapper is a separate gem.

  CatchVs Playwright MCP gem: library/CLI lane; not the MCP wrapper. Heavier than unit tests. Browser downloads and CI images are real ops. Not Stagehand/Browserbase.

• fzfMIT command-line fuzzy finder

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 83.7k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT fuzzy finder. Free forever; you compose the workflows.

  CatchFuzzy finder only - not a file manager, not ripgrep itself (pairs with it), not a shell. You wire the pipes. Not Atuin shell history sync.

• RepomixMIT pack entire repo into one AI-friendly file

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 28.9k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT repo packer. Free forever.

  CatchStill a dump - huge monorepos blow context. Distinct from CodeGraph and Gitingest.

• GitingestMIT turn any GitHub URL into prompt-ready ingest

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 16k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT GitHub ingest. Free forever.

  CatchPublic-URL convenience, not a private monorepo indexer. Distinct from Repomix local pack and CodeGraph graph.

• OpenCodeMIT OSS coding agent: CLI, TUI, desktop; BYOK/local

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 219k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT BYOK agent across CLI/desktop/IDE. The real catches are on /log: date stamp and compaction.

  CatchTwo catches worth reading on /log: “The date stamp is a trigger channel” (auto today’s-date × open-weight LoRA as a time-release fuse) and “Compaction ate the denial” (long sessions prune hard vetoes; compaction is untrusted rewrite). Re-read those two notes before you treat OpenCode as set-and-forget.

• Kilo CodeMIT OSS IDE+CLI agent; active Cline/Roo line + MCP marketplace

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 27.7k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT IDE+CLI agent with MCP marketplace. Roo’s active heir, not a second OpenCode.

  CatchPitch IDE+platform, not “another OpenCode.” Gateway/account is convenience; BYOK stays. Marketplace and modes are the differentiator vs plain CLI harnesses. Enterprise governance rides Anaconda — evaluate if that middle layer matters for your org.

• D2MPL-2.0 diagram-as-code; TALA bundled for auto-layout

  Free / OSS · MPL-2.0 · 25.7k GitHub stars

  VerdictMPL-2.0 diagram DSL. Free forever; use when architecture diagrams belong in Git alongside code.

  CatchMPL-2.0 is not MIT — modifications to D2 itself must be disclosed. Vs Mermaid (Markdown-native diagrams) and Excalidraw (hand-drawn freeform): D2 is the text DSL for *structured* diagrams, not a whiteboard and not inline in Markdown by default. TALA-standalone is commercially licensed; pitch D2 with bundled TALA, not TALA alone.

• ripgrepUnlicense/MIT recursive grep that respects .gitignore

  Free / OSS · Unlicense · 69.3k GitHub stars

  VerdictUnlicense/MIT grep replacement. Free forever; the search tool every terminal should alias.

  CatchVs grep (POSIX baseline) and ag/The Silver Searcher (predecessor): ripgrep is the modern default, not a POSIX drop-in. If your workflow depends on GNU grep flags exactly, `rg` is similar but not identical. No built-in fuzzy matching — pair with fzf for interactive filtering.

• batMIT/Apache-2.0 cat clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 60.9k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT/Apache-2.0 cat clone. Free forever; alias cat=bat and never look at monochrome output again.

  CatchVs cat (POSIX baseline): bat is heavier — startup and memory cost for highlighting. Not a POSIX cat drop-in for scripts expecting raw byte streams. Large files or binary content should still use plain cat. Theme configuration is optional but becomes a rabbit hole.

• jqMIT command-line JSON processor — the ubiquitous pipe filter

  Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 35.9k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT JSON filter. Free forever; the one CLI that belongs in every shell script touching JSON.

  CatchVs yq (YAML/JSON/XML), fx (interactive), and jless (TUI viewer): jq is the *filter language*, not a viewer and not YAML-native. Syntax is its own DSL — steep initial learning curve for complex transforms. Error messages can be cryptic. No schema validation or type safety.

• fdMIT/Apache-2.0 ignore-aware parallel filename find

  Free / OSS · Apache-2.0 · 44.8k GitHub stars

  VerdictMIT/Apache-2.0 filename finder. Free forever; alias find habits here when you care about names and ignores.

  CatchVs ripgrep (content search) and fzf (fuzzy UI): fd finds *names*, not file contents, and it is not an interactive fuzzy picker. Not a POSIX find drop-in for every `-exec`/`-printf` edge case. Large trees still need sensible roots; it is not a content indexer.

More with this tag (107)

• hyperfine — MIT/Apache-2.0 statistical CLI benchmarker
• watchexec — Apache-2.0 mature file→command watcher (entr-class)
• tokei — MIT/Apache-2.0 fast LOC and code stats by language
• dust — Apache-2.0 intuitive du tree — see what eats the disk
• yq — MIT portable YAML/JSON/XML/CSV/TOML processor (Go)
• navi — Apache-2.0 interactive cheatsheet runner for the shell
• Wrangler — MIT/Apache CLI for Cloudflare Workers; Free plan is real
• xh — MIT HTTPie-compatible HTTP client as a Rust single binary
• procs — MIT modern ps — colors, tree, and JSON
• dasel — MIT one selector across JSON/YAML/TOML/XML/CSV
• jc — MIT CLI stdout→JSON so jq pipes stop parsing text
• VHS — MIT terminal GIFs as code — .tape scripts for CLI demos
• oha — MIT HTTP load generator with realtime TUI (hey-inspired)
• Syft — Apache-2.0 SBOM CLI for images and filesystems (pairs with Grype)
• Hurl — Apache-2.0 plain-text HTTP tests powered by curl
• k6 — AGPL-3.0 scriptable load testing (JS) from Grafana
• stern — Apache-2.0 multi-pod Kubernetes log tail
• OSV-Scanner — Apache-2.0 OSV.dev vulnerability scanner for lockfiles and images
• rclone — MIT rsync for cloud remotes — 70+ storage backends
• fq — MIT jq for binary formats — decode, query, REPL
• ShellCheck — GPL-3.0 de-facto static analysis for shell scripts
• Hadolint — GPL-3.0 AST Dockerfile linter + ShellCheck on RUN
• croc — MIT secure peer file send — relay + PAKE
• crane — Apache-2.0 registry CLI — inspect, copy, mutate OCI images
• MCP Inspector — MIT official MCP server debugger — web, CLI, and TUI
• mcp2cli — MIT runtime MCP/OpenAPI/GraphQL→CLI — zero codegen
• RTK — Apache-2.0 Rust CLI proxy — fewer agent shell tokens
• Agent Reach — MIT eyes for agents — public-web CLI, zero API fees
• llmfit — MIT CLI — which models fit your hardware
• Google Workspace CLI — Apache-2.0 first-party gws CLI — Drive, Gmail, Calendar, agent skills
• mcporter — MIT MCP as CLI + generate-cli / emit-ts (OpenClaw)
• Engram — MIT persistent agent memory — MCP, CLI, TUI, SQLite
• Open Code Review — Apache-2.0 hybrid deterministic+LLM review agent (MCP/plugins)
• OpenStatus — AGPL-3.0 status/uptime as code — Terraform/CLI/MCP
• Thurbox — MIT tmux TUI/CLI for local AI agent orchestration
• aclif — Agent CLI framework — one grammar across SaaS providers
• AX Check — Hosted free agent-experience checklist + recorded coding-agent sessions
• SLayer — MIT embeddable semantic layer for agents — MCP, SQL expressions, dbt/Cube import
• gawkbot — Source-available always-on bots that build microapps — local Grok Bot alternative
• T3 Code — Remote control surface for already-authenticated agent CLIs
• AX (Agent Executor) — Apache-2.0 Go CLI and Kubernetes CRDs for running agent tasks
• Agent Native — Define an action once and expose it to agents and every UI surface
• Design Studio AI — Agent-first design workspace with MCP, CLI, and shared human edits
• Codex-X — Codex-specific desktop and CLI workspace for visual configuration and MCP skills
• Pi — MIT agent harness with coding CLI, unified LLM API, and TUI
• video-use — Video-editing skill stack for coding agents
• AI-Infra-Guard — Red-team platform for agent, MCP, and skill infrastructure
• ZCode — Apache coding workspace — desktop, web, and zcode Agent CLI
• Agentao — MIT governed Python agent runtime — permissions, MCP, memory, replay
• CLI-Anything — Apache hub that makes arbitrary software agent-native via CLI surfaces
• Moli — Apache/MIT Rust headless browser for AI agents — structure first
• CC Switch — MIT desktop All-in-One manager for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and peers
• CLI Proxy API — MIT local OpenAI/Claude/Gemini-compatible API in front of coding CLIs
• UI-TARS Desktop — Apache-2.0 vision/GUI-agent desktop stack (Agent TARS)
• Floci — MIT free local AWS cloud API emulator (:4566 LocalStack-shaped)
• fx — Apache-2.0 tiny Zig Unix-like coding agent CLI (Vercel Labs)
• Reef — Apache-2.0 infra for continually self-improving agents
• Gemini Notebook MCP CLI — MIT CLI+MCP for Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM) — uv/PyPI free path
• DBX — Apache-2.0 agent-facing multi-engine DB client — MCP + CLI + Docker
• Magnitude — Apache-2.0 local inference desktop+CLI — consumer profiler for agents
• agent-desktop — Apache-2.0 desktop computer-use CLI — OS a11y refs, not pixels
• Agent Toolkit for AWS — Apache-2.0 Agents/MCP toolkit — plugins, skills, AWS CLI MCP proxy
• Mobile Build MCP — MIT Sentry MCP+CLI for iOS/macOS agent builds — npm mobilebuildmcp
• Skills (Vercel Labs) — MIT open agent-skills CLI — npx skills, skills.sh ecosystem
• Claude Code Router — MIT local control plane — route coding agents across models
• Reverify — MIT claim-verify loop for agents — MCP + deterministic tools
• Claude Code Action — MIT GitHub Action — Claude Code on your runner, model calls still bill
• InsForge — Apache agent-native backend with MCP self-host
• mcp-audit-tool — MIT static audit of MCP client configs — poisoning, rugs, secrets
• Kubescape — Apache-2.0 CNCF Kubernetes security — manifest and cluster scans, image CVEs, auto-fix, admission policies, MCP server
• zerobrew — MIT/Apache-2.0 Rust client for Homebrew packages — uv-style store, much faster installs
• ToolHive — Apache-2.0 MCP server runner + gateway — each server in its own container
• TruffleHog — AGPL-3.0 secret scanner that finds leaked credentials and checks whether they still work
• Bubble Tea — MIT Go framework for terminal UIs, built on The Elm Architecture — the engine under a lot of modern CLIs
• PPT Master — MIT agent skill that turns documents into natively editable PowerPoint decks — real shapes, charts and slide masters
• Docker Compose — Apache-2.0 multi-container apps from one YAML file
• Obsidian Mind — MIT Obsidian vault as persistent agent memory
• M3E Canvas — MIT Material 3 sketches turned into vibe-coding prompts
• xtool — MIT cross-platform Xcode replacement for SwiftPM iOS apps
• Beads — MIT issue-tracker memory for coding agents, on Dolt
• Fabric — MIT CLI that runs a library of reusable prompt patterns
• Phone Harness — MIT CLI that lets coding agents drive a real phone
• Hex-Rays IDA MCP — Official MIT MCP server for the IDA disassembler
• Scion — Apache-2.0 platform for running coding agents as teams
• Apache Maka — Apache-2.0 local-first agent workspace that logs every step
• esbuild — MIT Go bundler and minifier for JavaScript, TypeScript and CSS
• Expo — MIT platform for React Native apps on iOS, Android and web
• pgcli — BSD-3-Clause Postgres CLI with smart autocompletion
• usql — MIT universal psql-style CLI for SQL and NoSQL databases
• Nhost — MIT open-source Firebase alternative with Postgres and GraphQL
• notifiers — MIT one Python API for many notification providers
• mitmproxy — MIT interactive TLS-capable intercepting HTTP proxy
• Click — BSD-3 composable command-line interfaces for Python
• pipx — MIT install Python apps in isolated environments
• ttyd — MIT share your terminal over the web
• ripwire — Apache-2.0 offline code map and quality checks for coding agents (CLI + MCP)
• gptme — MIT terminal agent that edits files and runs shell and Python
• Docker MCP Gateway — MIT docker mcp CLI plugin that runs MCP servers in isolated containers
• Terraform — HashiCorp's infrastructure-as-code CLI; BUSL-1.1 source-available, free to self-host
• urfave/cli — MIT declarative package for building command-line tools in Go
• files-to-prompt — Apache-2.0 concatenate a directory into one LLM prompt
• HTTPie — BSD-3-Clause human-friendly HTTP client for the terminal
• sd — MIT intentional sed subset — search & displace
• gron — MIT flatten JSON to greppable assignments
• Bytebase — MIT-core DB change governance; Community free to 20 users/10 instances
• Antigravity CLI — Google terminal agent (agy) — Gemini CLI consumer successor
• Daytona — Freemium agent sandboxes — stateful envs, SDK/API/CLI