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**Pros** of CLI arguments/flags include:
* Easier to leverage the tool in another script or via other automation so that user interaction is not required
* If certain arguments are optional and/or have default values, the user is not burdened with these choices when they are unimportant
* Once someone has used the tool a few times, it is often faster for them to memorize their preferred parameters or save/alias them than to have to manually input them each time
**Cons** may include:
* If the targeted users are not comfortable using a CLI, they may struggle to use the application. Receiving parameters via interactive input may be more user-friendly (especially if interactive error handling/validation is employed to give the user immediate feedback and assistance with invalid options)
* If the parameters are complex and certain options have conditional relationships upon others, gathering this information at runtime may be more user-friendly
Other considerations:
* Consider accepting _either_ CLI parameters _or_ gathering parameters at runtime if no arguments are provided
* Consider a configuration file if options will rarely change or are private, such as passwords/keys
* If the script operates on a file, also consider receiving input via stdin along with various parameters, which enables data to be piped to the application from multiple sources (i.e., not just from a file, or from a file after being filtered through another tool)

**Pros** of CLI arguments/flags include:
- Easier to leverage the tool in another script or via other automation so that user interaction is not required
- If certain arguments are optional and/or have default values, the user is not burdened with these choices when they are unimportant
- Once someone has used the tool a few times, it is often faster for them to memorize their preferred parameters or save/alias them than to have to manually input them each time
**Cons** may include:
- If the targeted users are not comfortable using a CLI, they may struggle to use the application. Receiving parameters via interactive input may be more user-friendly (especially if interactive error handling/validation is employed to give the user immediate feedback and assistance with invalid options)
- If the parameters are complex and certain options have conditional relationships upon others, gathering this information at runtime may be more user-friendly
Other considerations:
- Consider accepting _either_ CLI parameters _or_ gathering parameters at runtime if no arguments are provided
- Consider a configuration file if options will rarely change or are private, such as passwords/keys
- If the script operates on a file, also consider receiving input via stdin along with various parameters, which enables data to be piped to the application from multiple sources (i.e., not just from a file, or from a file after being filtered through another tool)

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