CLI UX Tester

A Claude Code plugin that provides expert UX evaluation for command-line interfaces, developer tools, and APIs. Install via the Claude Code plugin system (/plugin install cli-ux-tester@ali5ter).

Features

• 11-criteria UX framework with 1-5 scoring per dimension (8 core + 3 extended criteria)
• Active testing by executing real commands and capturing output
• Parallel evaluation agents for thorough, unbiased analysis
• Persistent memory across evaluations for cross-project pattern tracking
• Comprehensive output artifacts: evaluation report, remediation plan, metrics, and test scripts
• Language-agnostic: evaluates user-facing behavior regardless of implementation

Repository structure

agents/
  cli-ux-tester.md                 # Agent definition — synthesizes results into scored artifacts
skills/
  cli-ux-tester/
    SKILL.md                       # Skill — detects CLI, spawns evaluation agents, invokes synthesizer
    testing-checklist.md           # Comprehensive testing checklist (11 criteria)
    test-scenarios.md              # Common CLI testing scenarios
    scripts/
      example-test.sh              # Template for automated testing
.claude-plugin/
  plugin.json                      # Plugin manifest
migrate                            # Migration script for v1.x and v2.x users
README.md
LICENSE

Install

Inside Claude Code, run:

/plugin marketplace add ali5ter/claude-plugins
/plugin install cli-ux-tester@ali5ter

Migrating from v1.x or v2.x

If you previously installed via ./install.sh or an earlier version of this plugin, run the migration script:

./migrate

Then reinstall via the plugin commands above.

Usage

After installation, ask Claude to evaluate any CLI in your session:

Review this CLI for UX issues
Test the error messages in this tool
Check if this API is developer-friendly
Evaluate the help system

The skill detects which CLI to evaluate from the current directory or your message, then runs the evaluation automatically.

What gets evaluated

The plugin applies an 11-criteria framework, rating each dimension 1–5 with specific evidence:

Core criteria (1–8):

1. Discovery & Discoverability — Can users find features?
2. Command & API Naming — Are names intuitive and consistent?
3. Error Handling & Messages — Are errors clear and actionable?
4. Help System & Documentation — Is help comprehensive and accessible?
5. Consistency & Patterns — Do similar operations follow patterns?
6. Visual Design & Output — Is output readable and well-formatted?
7. Performance & Responsiveness — Does the CLI feel fast?
8. Accessibility & Inclusivity — Can diverse developers use it?

Extended criteria (9–11):

1. Integration & Interoperability — Does it compose with shell pipelines and standard tools?
2. Security & Safety — Are destructive operations guarded and credentials handled safely?
3. User Guidance & Onboarding — Does it guide new users toward their first success?

Output artifacts

All results go into a timestamped directory in the evaluated project:

CLI_UX_EVALUATION_<YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS>/
├── EVALUATION.md          # Full report with scores and evidence
├── REMEDIATION_PLAN.md    # Prioritized action items with effort estimates
├── metrics.json           # Machine-readable scores for tracking over time
└── test.sh                # Automated regression test script

Clean up with: rm -rf CLI_UX_EVALUATION_*/

Scope

In scope (UX/DX):

• User-facing behavior: help text, error messages, output formatting
• Developer experience: discoverability, learnability, consistency
• Accessibility and inclusivity
• Exit codes and signal handling as they affect UX

Out of scope (code quality):

• Internal code architecture or style
• Language-specific best practices unrelated to UX
• Performance internals (though responsiveness is evaluated)

How it works

The plugin provides two components:

• Skill (cli-ux-tester) — detects the target CLI, asks clarifying questions if needed, spawns three evaluation agents in parallel (an Explore agent for codebase mapping and two test agents for help/discovery and error handling), then passes all collected results to the synthesizer agent
• Agent (cli-ux-tester:cli-ux-tester) — receives pre-collected test data and synthesizes it into a scored 11-criteria evaluation, producing all four output artifacts

The skill handles parallel evaluation directly because the platform does not support sub-agents spawning further sub-agents. The agent runs in acceptEdits permission mode to auto-approve artifact writes, and uses persistent user-scoped memory to accumulate cross-evaluation patterns over time.

Safety and quality notes

• The evaluation agents execute commands in the current directory to observe real behavior.
• All generated files use a timestamped directory for easy cleanup.
• The synthesizer agent uses permissionMode: acceptEdits — file writes are auto-approved, but Bash commands still prompt for permission.

License

MIT License, Copyright (c) 2026 Alister Lewis-Bowen.