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Introducing Clawless

· 3 min read
Jan David Nose
Jan David Nose

We're thrilled to announce the first public release of Clawless 0.4.0, a batteries-included framework for building command-line applications in Rust!

Building CLIs should be about solving problems, not wiring up boilerplate. Clawless takes care of the infrastructure so you can focus on what makes your tool unique.

What is Clawless?​

Clawless is a framework that transforms how you build command-line applications in Rust. Instead of manually registering commands, parsing arguments, and setting up help text, you write simple functions and let the framework handle the rest.

Here's a complete command:

use clawless::prelude::*;

#[derive(Debug, Args)]
pub struct GreetArgs {
    /// The name to greet
    #[arg(default_value = "World")]
    name: String,
}

/// Greet the user
#[command]
pub async fn greet(args: GreetArgs, context: Context) -> CommandResult {
    println!("Hello, {}!", args.name);
    Ok(())
}

That's it. The function name becomes your command name, doc comments become help text, and the Context parameter gives you access to framework features. Everything you need is already there.

Convention over configuration​

The core philosophy of Clawless is simple: your file structure becomes your command structure.

Want to add a db migrate subcommand? Create this structure:

src/
├── main.rs
├── commands.rs
└── commands/
    ├── db.rs
    └── db/
        └── migrate.rs

The module hierarchy maps directly to CLI commands. No manual registration, no configuration files, no macro soup. Just Rust modules doing what Rust modules do.

myapp db migrate

This convention-based approach means you can understand a CLI's structure just by looking at the file tree. New team members know exactly where to find code. Adding features is as simple as creating a new file.

Getting started in minutes​

We've built scaffolding tools to get you up and running fast:

# Install the Clawless CLI
cargo install clawless-cli

# Create a new project
clawless new my-cli
cd my-cli

# Run the example command
cargo run -- greet

You'll have a working CLI in seconds. Want to add a command? Generate the boilerplate:

clawless generate command deploy

The CLI creates the file, updates module declarations, and sets up the structure. You just fill in the logic.

Built for real CLIs​

Clawless isn't just about simple commands. It's designed for production applications that need:

  • Nested command hierarchies - Organize large CLIs into logical command groups
  • Type-safe arguments - Full compiler guarantees from Clap's derive API
  • Async by default - Tokio runtime managed automatically
  • Context system - Access environment information, configuration, and framework features
  • Doc-driven help - Write documentation once, in your code

The framework provides the infrastructure that every CLI needs, so you don't build it from scratch each time.

What's next?​

We're actively developing Clawless and have exciting features planned:

  • Structured output and logging system
  • Configuration management (files + environment variables)
  • Shell completion generation
  • JSON output mode for scripting

Check out the roadmap on GitHub to see what's coming and share your ideas.

Try it today​

Ready to build your first CLI with Clawless?

Or jump straight to the code:

cargo install clawless-cli
clawless new my-awesome-cli

We can't wait to see what you build! If you have questions, find bugs, or want to contribute, visit us on GitHub.

Happy building!