CLI

The extra-platforms command-line tool detects and reports the architecture, platform, shell, terminal, CI system, and agent of the current environment.

Invocation

uvx (no install)

$ uvx extra-platforms

Installed package

$ extra-platforms

Python module

$ python -m extra_platforms

uv run (development)

$ uv run extra-platforms

Options

The full option list is rendered live from the CLI’s own parser, so it never drifts from the code:

usage: extra-platforms [-h] [--json] [--version]

Detect and report the architecture, platform, shell, terminal, CI, and agent
of the current environment.

options:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --json      output results as JSON
  --version   show program's version number and exit

--json is the option worth highlighting: it swaps the default human-readable report for a single JSON object, handy for scripting and piping into tools like jq (see JSON output below).

Default output

The default output prints each detected trait with its metadata, followed by summary tables of all detected traits and groups:

$ extra-platforms
extra-platforms 13.5.3

── Architecture ── 📱 ARM64 (AArch64) ──[AARCH64]────────────
            id: aarch64
       aliases: arm64
          name: ARM64 (AArch64)
          icon: 📱
           url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AArch64
       current: True
       machine: arm64
        symbol: AARCH64
     detection: is_aarch64()
        pytest: @skip_aarch64, @unless_aarch64
        groups: ALL_ARCHITECTURES, ALL_ARM, ALL_TRAITS, ARCH_64_BIT, LITTLE_ENDIAN

── Platform ── 🍎 macOS ──[MACOS]────────────────────────────
            id: macos
          (...)

JSON output

The --json flag produces a single JSON object with all detected traits and groups:

$ extra-platforms --json

{
  "version": "13.5.3",
  "architecture": {
    "id": "aarch64",
    "name": "ARM64 (AArch64)",
    "icon": "📱",
    "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AArch64",
    "current": true,
    "machine": "arm64",
    "processor": null,
    "aliases": ["arm64"],
    "symbol": "AARCH64",
    "detection": "is_aarch64",
    "groups": ["ALL_ARCHITECTURES", "ALL_ARM", "ALL_TRAITS", "ARCH_64_BIT", "LITTLE_ENDIAN"]
  },
  "platform": { "..." : "..." },
  "shell": { "..." : "..." },
  "terminal": { "..." : "..." },
  "ci": { "..." : "..." },
  "agent": { "..." : "..." },
  "groups": [
    {
      "id": "all_arm",
      "name": "ARM architectures",
      "icon": "📱",
      "symbol": "ALL_ARM",
      "detection": "is_any_arm",
      "canonical": true
    }
  ]
}

Each trait section contains:

Field	Description
id	Unique trait identifier
name	Human-readable name
icon	Single-glyph icon
url	Reference URL
current	Whether this trait matches the current environment
aliases	Alternative IDs for this trait
symbol	Uppercase symbol for Python imports (from extra_platforms import AARCH64)
detection	Detection function name (from extra_platforms import is_aarch64)
groups	Groups this trait belongs to

Trait-specific fields (like machine, version, codename) are included when available.

Scripting examples

Extract the current platform ID:

$ extra-platforms --json | jq --raw-output .platform.id
macos

List all detected group names:

$ extra-platforms --json | jq --raw-output '.groups[].name'
ARM architectures
All BSD
All Unix
(...)

Check if running in CI:

$ extra-platforms --json | jq '.ci.id != "unknown_ci"'
false