Arguments and Flags

Command inputs are plain C# classes whose properties are mapped to arguments and flags.

Defining an Input Class

public class BuildInput
{
    [Description("The target configuration")]
    public string Configuration { get; set; } = "Debug";

    [Description("The output directory")]
    public string OutputPath { get; set; } = "./bin";

    [FlagAlias("verbose", 'v')]
    [Description("Enable verbose output")]
    public bool VerboseFlag { get; set; }

    [FlagAlias("force", 'f')]
    [Description("Force a clean rebuild")]
    public bool ForceFlag { get; set; }

    [Description("Maximum degree of parallelism")]
    public int ParallelCount { get; set; } = 4;
}

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public class BuildInput
{
    [Description("The target configuration")]
    public string Configuration { get; set; } = "Debug";

    [Description("The output directory")]
    public string OutputPath { get; set; } = "./bin";

    [FlagAlias("verbose", 'v')]
    [Description("Enable verbose output")]
    public bool VerboseFlag { get; set; }

    [FlagAlias("force", 'f')]
    [Description("Force a clean rebuild")]
    public bool ForceFlag { get; set; }

    [Description("Maximum degree of parallelism")]
    public int ParallelCount { get; set; } = 4;
}

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Arguments

Public properties that are not suffixed with Flag are treated as positional arguments. They are matched in the order they appear on the class.

• Required arguments -- Non-nullable properties without a default value
• Optional arguments -- Properties with a default value

Flags

Properties whose names end with Flag are treated as command line flags (options).

Flag Aliases

Use [FlagAlias] to define short and long flag names:

[FlagAlias("verbose", 'v')]
public bool VerboseFlag { get; set; }

This allows both --verbose and -v on the command line.

Flag Types

.NET Type	CLI Syntax	Example
bool	--flag	--verbose
string	--flag value	--output ./bin
int	--flag value	--parallel 8
Enum	--flag value	--level Debug

Description Attribute

Use [Description] on properties to provide help text displayed in the CLI:

[Description("The target configuration")]
public string Configuration { get; set; } = "Debug";

Next Steps

• Writing Commands -- Build commands using input classes
• Environment Checks -- Startup validation