Building a Deep Nested CLI Application with Cobra in Golang

Continuing my previous article about Cobra , the powerful Golang library for building command-line interfaces, we're diving deeper into the world of CLI development.

In this installment, we'll explore how to take advantage of Cobra's capabilities to create a deeply nested CLI application. By organizing commands and subcommands in a hierarchical structure, we can make our CLI more user-friendly, intuitive, and flexible for handling complex tasks. Join me as we embark on this journey of building a feature-rich CLI tool that showcases the true power of Cobra in Golang. Let's get started!

Implementing Deep Nesting

To achieve deep nesting, we'll add subcommands under the existing config command. Let's create subcommands under subcommand: deepsubcommand.

// cmd/deepsubcommand.go
package cmd

import (
    "fmt"

    "github.com/spf13/cobra"
)

var deepSubCmd = &cobra.Command{
    Use:   "deepsubcommand",
    Short: "A brief description of the deepsubcommand",
    Long: `A longer description that explains the deepsubcommand
in detail. For example, you can mention how it complements
the main command and what options it supports.`,
    Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
        // This function will be executed when the "deepsubcommand" is called
        fmt.Println("Running the deepsubcommand!")
    },
}

func init() {
    subCmd.AddCommand(deepSubCmd)
}

Lest try it with:

$ go run main.go subcommand deepsubcommand
> Running the deepsubcommand!

Conclusion:

In this blog post, we explored how to create a deep nested CLI application using the Cobra library in Golang. By organizing commands and subcommands hierarchically, we can build user-friendly CLIs that enhance the overall user experience. Cobra's intuitive API and support for commands, subcommands, and flags make it a powerful choice for building CLI applications in Golang.

In your own projects, you can extend this deep nested CLI application further and customize it to suit your specific use cases. Have fun experimenting with different configurations and commands to create a versatile and user-friendly CLI tool!

Footnote:

Full code is available on github