Build a Developer Tool / CLI

A CLI, a SaaS for developers, or a paid dev-tool — the meta-game of selling shovels. Lean on the same tools StackPicks itself was built with.

Repos

Layers

Build time

A weekend

Outcome

See below

You will ship

A published CLI on npm + a paid dashboard for power users.

How to feed this to your AI agent Browse the full directory

Runtime + tooling

4 repos

oven-sh

bun

Standalone executable bundling. Distribute one binary, no Node prerequisite.

JavaScript runtime + package manager + bundler in Zig. ~76k stars. Faster than Node for many workloads. Production use is rising, but most t…

biomejs

biome

One tool: linter + formatter + import sorter. Fewer config files.

Fast Rust-based formatter + linter. ~15k stars. Replaces Prettier + ESLint with one tool. Adoption is rising; ESLint plugin ecosystem is sti…

pnpm

Workspaces. If your CLI has a monorepo of subcommands, pnpm is the right choice.

Fast, disk-efficient Node package manager. ~30k stars. Replaces npm/yarn for monorepo work. Default for new TypeScript projects in 2026.…

turbo-build

turbo

Build caching across the monorepo. Skips work when nothing changed.

Monorepo build orchestrator from Vercel. ~26k stars. Speeds up large monorepos with caching. Overkill for small projects but transformative …

Testing

1 repo

vitest-dev

vitest

Vitest just works with TypeScript and ESM. The cleanest test runner.

Vite-native unit test runner. ~13k stars. Faster than Jest, compatible API. Default for new Vite-based projects in 2026.…

Distribution

1 repo

changesets

Semver + changelogs + npm publish. Run by Vercel, used by every modern monorepo.

7 more layers · 14 more repos · members only

Companion web app2 repos
Library bundling2 repos
Codegen + scaffolders2 repos
Dependency hygiene3 repos
Git hooks2 repos
CLI UX2 repos
Modern compilers (early adoption)1 repo

14 more curated repos · unlock full access · members only

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How to build build a developer tool / cli with AI

The 4-step AI workflow

The AI agents are good at code. They're bad at deciding what stack to use. This bundle does the second part. You bring the agent.

1
Ideate with ChatGPT or Claude.ai (web)
Paste your idea: “I'm building build a developer tool / cli. Help me sharpen the product spec — features, edge cases, MVP scope.” Iterate for 10-15 minutes until you have a clear one-page brief.
2
Pick your coding agent
For this kind of bundle, we recommend Claude Code — Sonnet 4.6/4.7 handles full-stack multi-file reasoning best. See the install guide → Cursor and Codex are also great; pick the one you already pay for.

Feed this bundle to the agent

Open Claude Code / Cursor / Codex in an empty folder, then paste:

I'm building build a developer tool / cli. Use this bundle as the source of truth for the stack:
https://stackpicks.dev/build/developer-tools

Brief from my product spec:
[paste your brief from step 1]

Follow the bundle order strictly:
  1. Runtime + tooling
  2. Testing
  3. Distribution
  4. Companion web app
  ...

Stop and confirm with me after each layer.

4
Wire one layer at a time, commit between each
Don't let the agent install everything before the first git commit. One layer = one commit. Catches drift early, easy rollback.

Beyond the bundle

1Ship the boring version first. The bundle above is the maximalist list. For an MVP, start with 60% of these and add the rest when real users ask.
2Deploy early. Push to Railway / Vercel after layer 02 (auth) — not after layer 09. Production breaks differently than localhost.
3Read CLAUDE.md / .cursor/rules in this repo for the project conventions your AI agent should follow.
4Iterate on the take. If a repo here doesn't fit your specific use case, tell us — contact — and we'll add a better one within 60 minutes.