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What is CLI? A Practical Definition

2026-07-283 min read

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What is CLI?

A CLI (Command-Line Interface) is a text-based way of interacting with a program by typing commands into a terminal, as opposed to clicking through a graphical interface. CLIs are favored by developers because they are scriptable, composable with other tools via pipes, and fast to operate without leaving the keyboard.

Example

git commit -m "fix bug" is a CLI command with a flag and an argument.

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