Skip to content

001-spectre-console-over-system-commandline.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
34 lines (23 loc) · 1.61 KB

001-spectre-console-over-system-commandline.md

File metadata and controls

34 lines (23 loc) · 1.61 KB

ADR 001: Spectre.Console.Cli over System.CommandLine

Date: 2026-03 Status: Accepted

Related: Phase 1

Context

The CLI needs a command-line parsing framework. The reference project (freshdesk-cli) uses System.CommandLine but resorts to manual command routing via a large switch statement, bypassing many of the framework's features.

Decision

Use Spectre.Console.Cli for command parsing and Spectre.Console for rich terminal output. This gives us a single dependency that handles both concerns: structured command trees with AddBranch and rich output (tables, panels, colors, progress bars).

Alternatives Considered

Alternative Pros Cons Why rejected
System.CommandLine Microsoft-backed, AOT-friendly Still in beta, complex API, no rich output Requires separate output library, API still evolving
Cocona Minimal boilerplate Smaller community, less output control Less mature than Spectre for CLI apps
Manual routing (freshdesk-cli pattern) Full control No auto-generated help, no validation, lots of boilerplate Doesn't scale with 20+ commands

Consequences

Positive:

  • Auto-generated help for all commands and branches
  • Built-in argument validation and type conversion
  • Rich output (tables, panels, colors) from the same library
  • Settings inheritance for shared options (--json, --verbose, --read-only)

Negative:

  • Spectre.Console.Cli overrides user-registered IAnsiConsole in DI (required IConsoleProvider workaround)
  • Not yet at 1.0 (currently 0.50.0)