Command-Line Interface Glossary

A text-based way of operating software by entering commands with names, options, and arguments.

Command-Line Interface

A command-line interface, or CLI, is a text-based way of operating software by entering commands with names, options, and arguments.

For example:

git status --short

Here git names the program, status requests an operation, and --short selects a compact output format.

A graphical user interface presents buttons, menus, and windows. A CLI presents a small language. The learning curve is steeper, but commands are precise, repeatable, easy to automate, and easy for an AI agent to construct and verify.

The terms CLI, shell, and terminal overlap in casual speech. Strictly speaking, the terminal is the display environment, the shell interprets commands, and each command-line program exposes its own CLI.

See also

Terminal · Shell · Bash · Exit Code

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