---
title: "Rebuilding the CircleCI CLI from scratch"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/rebuilding-the-circleci-cli-from-scratch-hdh2yodgt
source_url: https://circleci.com/blog/rebuilding-the-circleci-cli-from-scratch
type: article
source: "CircleCI"
published: 2026-07-07T19:51:27.586Z
updated: 2026-07-07T19:54:12.002Z
tags: ["golang", "cli", "mcp", "circleci"]
reading_time: 6
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rebuilding the CircleCI CLI from scratch

**[CircleCI](https://daily.dev/sources/circle)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

CircleCI has released a ground-up rewrite of its CLI in Go, now in beta. The new CLI is designed with a human-first philosophy while being fully agent-compatible. Key features include: universal --json and built-in --jq flags on every data-returning command, browser-based OAuth login with system keyring storage, an interactive TUI built on bubbletea for debugging runs without a browser, structured error messages with stable exit codes, and a built-in MCP server that integrates with Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code in one command. Design principles were codified before any code was written, covering output formatting, error structure, flag naming, and telemetry (opt-out, auto-disabled in CI). The rewrite was motivated partly by the need to support coding agents, which require consistent JSON output and stable exit codes that the old CLI couldn't reliably provide.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://circleci.com/blog/rebuilding-the-circleci-cli-from-scratch>

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [Designing a CLI for AI agents](https://daily.dev/posts/designing-a-cli-for-ai-agents-dpz7qofsj) · Arcjet · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
- [“The terminal still matters”: Amp rebuilds its CLI for an agentic future beyond the command line](https://daily.dev/posts/the-terminal-still-matters-amp-rebuilds-its-cli-for-an-agentic-future-beyond-the-command-line-zkz0cwa0g) · The New Stack · 1 upvotes · 0 comments
- [Cline CLI 2.0 Turns Your Terminal Into an AI Agent Control Plane](https://daily.dev/posts/cline-cli-2-0-turns-your-terminal-into-an-ai-agent-control-plane-u1bvhecki) · DevOps.com · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#cli](https://daily.dev/tags/cli), [#mcp](https://daily.dev/tags/mcp), [#circleci](https://daily.dev/tags/circleci)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/rebuilding-the-circleci-cli-from-scratch-hdh2yodgt)
