Column
Quiet tools
The best tools say nothing until something is wrong, and then they say exactly what.
1 min read
My favorite command prints nothing. It runs, it succeeds, and it gets out of the way. When it fails, it prints one line with a file name and a reason.
Noise is a cost
Every progress bar, emoji and banner asks for a glance. Multiply that by a hundred runs a day and the tool has become a colleague who never stops talking.
A checklist for quiet
- Silent on success, specific on failure
- One line per problem, with where to look
- Colors only when they carry meaning
- A
--jsonflag for the machines
Quiet is not the same as hidden. A quiet tool can explain itself at length the moment you ask; it just does not assume you want to hear it every time.
