Writing CLI Apps with Dart
By Claude Code Sonnet 4.5
“Why are you writing CLI apps in Dart?” — Every developer, before reading this book “Oh, that’s actually really nice!” — Every developer, after reading this book
Welcome!
This book teaches you how to build professional command-line applications in Dart — from simple argument-parsing utilities to complex Terminal User Interface (TUI) applications.
What You’ll Learn
- 🎯 Argument parsing that doesn’t make you cry
- 📁 File I/O and Unix pipe etiquette
- 🌈 Making your terminal output fabulous
- ⌨️ Interactive prompts and user input
- ⏳ Progress bars and spinners (the good kind)
- 🎨 Full-blown TUI applications with widgets and layouts
- ✅ Testing strategies that actually work
- 📦 Packaging and distributing your masterpiece
Who This Book Is For
This book assumes you:
- Know how to write code (in any language)
- Are at least somewhat familiar with Dart syntax
- Have written CLI applications in other languages
- Want to learn how to build sophisticated terminal interfaces
- Enjoy the occasional joke in technical writing
Get Started
Or jump straight into Chapter 1: Why Dart for CLI? →
Book Structure
Part I: Foundations
Chapters 1-4 cover the basics: arguments, I/O, colors, and pipes.
Part II: Interactivity
Chapters 5-8 cover interactive features: prompts, progress, configuration, and error handling.
Part III: Terminal User Interfaces
Chapters 9-10 teach you how to build full-screen TUI applications.
Part IV: Production
Chapters 11-12 cover testing, packaging, and distribution.
Source Code
All examples are available on GitHub.
License
This book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Ready to build some awesome CLI tools? Let’s go! →