![cobra logo](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/173412/10886352/ad566232-814f-11e5-9cd0-aa101788c117.png)

[Hugo](https://gohugo.io), and [Github CLI](https://github.com/cli/cli) to

name a few. [This list](./projects_using_cobra.md) contains a more extensive list of projects using Cobra.

[![](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/spf13/cobra/Test?longCache=tru&label=Test&logo=github%20actions&logoColor=fff)](https://github.com/spf13/cobra/actions?query=workflow%3ATest)

[![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/spf13/cobra)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/spf13/cobra)

[![Slack](https://img.shields.io/badge/Slack-cobra-brightgreen)](https://gophers.slack.com/archives/CD3LP1199)

# Overview

Cobra is a library providing a simple interface to create powerful modern CLI

interfaces similar to git & go tools.

Cobra provides:

* Easy subcommand-based CLIs: `app server`, `app fetch`, etc.

* Fully POSIX-compliant flags (including short & long versions)

* Nested subcommands

* Global, local and cascading flags

* Intelligent suggestions (`app srver`... did you mean `app server`?)

* Automatic help generation for commands and flags

* Automatic help flag recognition of `-h`, `--help`, etc.

* Automatically generated shell autocomplete for your application (bash, zsh, fish, powershell)

* Automatically generated man pages for your application

* Command aliases so you can change things without breaking them

* The flexibility to define your own help, usage, etc.

# Concepts

Cobra is built on a structure of commands, arguments & flags.

**Commands** represent actions, **Args** are things and **Flags** are modifiers for those actions.

The best applications read like sentences when used, and as a result, users

intuitively know how to interact with them.

The pattern to follow is

`APPNAME VERB NOUN --ADJECTIVE.`

    or

`APPNAME COMMAND ARG --FLAG`

A few good real world examples may better illustrate this point.

In the following example, 'server' is a command, and 'port' is a flag:

    hugo server --port=1313

In this command we are telling Git to clone the url bare.

    git clone URL --bare

## Commands

Command is the central point of the application. Each interaction that

the application supports will be contained in a Command. A command can

have children commands and optionally run an action.

In the example above, 'server' is the command.

## Flags

A flag is a way to modify the behavior of a command. Cobra supports

fully POSIX-compliant flags as well as the Go [flag package](https://golang.org/pkg/flag/).

A Cobra command can define flags that persist through to children commands

and flags that are only available to that command.

In the example above, 'port' is the flag.

Flag functionality is provided by the [pflag

library](https://github.com/spf13/pflag), a fork of the flag standard library

which maintains the same interface while adding POSIX compliance.

# Installing

Using Cobra is easy. First, use `go get` to install the latest version

Next, include Cobra in your application:

```go

import "github.com/spf13/cobra"

```

# Usage

# License

Cobra is released under the Apache 2.0 license. See [LICENSE.txt](https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)