# Don't rewrite your CLI for agents

DevFeed: [Don't rewrite your CLI for agents](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/don-t-rewrite-your-cli-for-agents-23829.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://devblogs.microsoft.com/blog/dont-rewrite-your-cli-for-agents/>)

Author: Waldek Mastykarz

Published: 2026-07-07T13:52:06Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Developer Blogs](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/developer-blogs.md>)

Topics: [Command-line interface](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cli.md>), [JSON](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/json.md>), [test](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/test.md>), [GitHub](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/github.md>)

Tags: [agent-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agent-experience.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ax](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ax.md>), [cli](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cli.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [github-copilot](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github-copilot.md>), [json](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/json.md>), [microsoft](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/microsoft.md>)

## AI overview

This article examines whether developer CLIs should replace conventional arguments with a single JSON payload for use by coding agents. It describes a controlled comparison using synthetic multi-service deployment CLIs, identical prompts, and several coding models; in the supplied results, every tested args profile achieved perfect correctness across five runs.

## Source excerpt

There's advice making the rounds: replace your CLI args with a single --json payload so agents can use your tool more effectively. The thinking being, that agents already think in structured formats, and nested data maps cleanly to JSON. Flat args on the other hand, force awkward conventions like repeating --service-name to delimit multi-value groups, [...] The post Don't rewrite your CLI for agents appeared first on Microsoft for Developers.