Add Anonymous Usage Analytics to Your CLI Tool

Add Anonymous Usage Analytics to Your CLI Tool You built a CLI tool. People install it. But you have no idea how they use it — which commands are popular, which flags they use, what errors they hit, or which Node.js versions they run. Without this data, you're making product decisions blind. Anonymous, opt-in usage analytics solve this. Major CLI tools like Next.js CLI, Gatsby CLI, and Angular CLI all collect anonymous telemetry. This article shows how to do it right — respecting privacy while getting actionable insights. The Ethics First Before writing code, establish these principles: Opt-in or opt-out with clear notice — tell users on first run Truly anonymous — no IPs, no user IDs, no file paths Minimal data — only what helps you improve the tool Transparent — document exactly what you collect Respect DO_NOT_TRACK — the environment variable standard // lib/telemetry.ts function isEnabled (): boolean { // Respect DO_NOT_TRACK standard if ( process . env . DO_NOT_TRACK === ' 1 ' ) re