Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by camkego 86 days ago
This looks useful. But, it's interesting how the backend-world and front-end world keep diverging. I must admit, I had no idea what this was from the title. "CLI framework"? But in backend-land, these would typically be called "argument parsers" or "command line argument parsers". But maybe I am missing some of the functionality.
3 comments
embedding-shape 86 days ago
Both in the frontend and the backend, I've usually used "If it calls your code, it's a framework, if you call its code, it's a library", and would seem to fit here too. An argument parser you'd call from your main method, then do stuff with what it returns. In Crust, it seems you instead setup the command + what will happen when it's called, then let the framework call your code.
link
codybontecou 86 days ago
That’s… actually a great definition. I’m going to try to retain that.
link
jazzypants 86 days ago
This is classically called "Inversion of Control"[0] or the "Hollywood Principle"[1] as in "Don't call us-- we'll call you".

[0] - https://martinfowler.com/bliki/InversionOfControl.html [1] - https://wiki.c2.com/?HollywoodPrinciple

link
jellyotsiro 86 days ago
good point.

we’re using “framework” intentionally because it goes beyond argument parsing. crust handles parsing, but also:

type inference across args + flags end to end compile-time validation (so mistakes fail before runtime) plugin system with lifecycle hooks (help, version, autocomplete, etc.) composable modules (prompts, styling, validation, build tooling) auto-generates agent skills and modules from the CLI definitions

so it sits a layer above a traditional arg parser like yargs or commander, closer to something like oclif, but much lighter and bun-native.

link
chenxin-yan 86 days ago
Hi, I called it "CLI framework" because it is more of a ecosystem of modules that contains everything you need to build a CLI, argument parsing is just part of it. The @crustjs/core module is the argument parser, and there are more modules such as @crustjs/skills that would derive agent skills from your command definition, @crustjs/store that state persistent and so on
link