A method of exposing the functionality of an application in a command interface includes generating a command line interpreter (“CLI”) from a component of an application. The application's components are used to automatically generate the CLI to interpret commands to access the functionality of the application. The generated CLI parses, maps, and dispatches the commands and any associated arguments in accordance with the application's components. Application metadata is used to modify the generated CLI to customize the exposure of the functionality of the application in the command interface.