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slowin 2 hours ago [-]
I don't understand why this is written in Typescript. This is a great example of how agents can write code (I'm sure they wrote `cf`), yet having fundamental computer science knowledge is still critical. Do not force your users to manage the dependencies of your cli. Do write your cli in a compiled language. Understand the reason for those decisions and tell your agents to use the correct architecture.
tcdent 46 minutes ago [-]
My read is that it's generally the teams that have been assigned to build a certain product that end up choosing the architecture that it runs on. So when we see TypeScript involved in TUI and CLI applications, most of it is just a repurposing of skill sets from that domain into the terminal. In an organization like Cloudflare, I expect that the developers who don't specialize in TypeScript are working on far more important problems.
kelchm 1 hours ago [-]
Are you really suggesting that the choice to use Typescript wasn't a deliberate one?
IMO -- it makes total sense within the existing Cloudflare tooling ecosystem.
slowin 1 hours ago [-]
Whether it was deliberate or not, I do not think it's a good choice. When agents can write in any language, there's no reason to pick the wrong tool for the job. At this point Javascript/Typescript belongs only in the browser. It's the suboptimal choice for every other environment. Especially for a command line tool. Even if the back-end is written in Typescript (also not the best choice imho), the clients need not be in the same language.
chatmasta 56 minutes ago [-]
Typescript and the npm/JS ecosystem may be complex, but you don’t need AGI to figure out how to install a CLI built with TS. My agent can figure out how to install this.
slowin 50 minutes ago [-]
It's not just the complexity. You're also vulnerable to supply chain attacks via NPM. It's also performance as you don't need the entire javascript runtime just for a CLI.
xtajv 10 minutes ago [-]
Code should be written for the user.
squiffsquiff 44 minutes ago [-]
AWS and GCP CLIs have been in Python for a decade or more. Last I checked Python was not a compiled language
xtajv 9 minutes ago [-]
Raise your hand if you have been personally traumatized by the miniature standalone py3 distribution bundled within the aws cli.
perching_aix 27 minutes ago [-]
"Claude, rewrite this in amd64 and arm64 assembly. Optimize it to the max, and make no mistakes. Oh yeah, formally verify it while there, may as well."
emadabdulrahim 6 minutes ago [-]
It's crazy that some of the best product launches nowadays are CLIs.
alasano 2 hours ago [-]
I don't know what it is about wrangler that made me dislike it so much but I welcome this change since it's meant to replace wrangler.
verdverm 2 hours ago [-]
re: wrangler, my biggest gripe was inconsistency between dev and prod
alasano 1 hours ago [-]
I think I may be confusing my annoyance with pages vs workers and agents that kept deploying to pages due to outdated training data.
Wrangler still didn't feel great to use.
smithclay 2 hours ago [-]
This is a lot to like here as someone who pretty much exclusively uses the Cloudflare API via agents. Hoping (since it's built on top of Forge), some kind of native terraform support is also in the works.
Great when you're a solo dev deploying a worker, but would be incredible for production deployments if this could also just natively output terraform code.
recroad 2 hours ago [-]
This is cool, but I've never had an issue with agents working on Cloudflare by just making REST calls. With the rest docs, it knows pretty much everything about what kind of operations it can do. Is the CLI a subset of that or does in encompass everything?
verdverm 2 hours ago [-]
The actual title is
> Introducing cf: the agentic CLI for the entire Cloudflare API
emphasis my own to highlight the key word missing in the HN title
unified101 2 hours ago [-]
I think the shape of clouds and services is going to change given current clouds are uxed for humans. Cloudflare is making the right bet. Specially the free agent report account. That's like a wonderful idea for building agent share.
verdverm 2 hours ago [-]
Kudos to cloudflare on this, it looks like a great CLI, I especially like the `cf cli search`.
Related, Matt Pocock's skill for having agents generate an interactive bash script for things only humans can do (or should do), presented in the context of devops like activities
I have found that having the agents write scripts to use tools like this is better (less tokens, more reliability, fewer side quests) than giving it to them directly with markdown they may or may not follow on any given day.
The other benefit to this is that you can put scripts on either side of the agent and remove all credentials from their process, removing whole classes of issues you don't want to have to tell your boss about. CLIs like this are great for read-only debug sessions, but if you are going to make modifications to your cloud infra, keep doing IaC.
rahimnathwani 54 minutes ago [-]
You linked to /skills/productivity/to-questionnaire/SKILL.md
Did you mean to link to /skills/engineering/wizard/SKILL.md ?
IMO -- it makes total sense within the existing Cloudflare tooling ecosystem.
Wrangler still didn't feel great to use.
Great when you're a solo dev deploying a worker, but would be incredible for production deployments if this could also just natively output terraform code.
> Introducing cf: the agentic CLI for the entire Cloudflare API
emphasis my own to highlight the key word missing in the HN title
Related, Matt Pocock's skill for having agents generate an interactive bash script for things only humans can do (or should do), presented in the context of devops like activities
https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/produc...
I have found that having the agents write scripts to use tools like this is better (less tokens, more reliability, fewer side quests) than giving it to them directly with markdown they may or may not follow on any given day.
The other benefit to this is that you can put scripts on either side of the agent and remove all credentials from their process, removing whole classes of issues you don't want to have to tell your boss about. CLIs like this are great for read-only debug sessions, but if you are going to make modifications to your cloud infra, keep doing IaC.
Did you mean to link to /skills/engineering/wizard/SKILL.md ?
thanks for surfacing this for everyone
link: https://github.com/mattpocock/skills/blob/main/skills/engine...
I have been using the pre-releases with success, but this post could have waited a few days!