So, I've pushed the prototype for the new approach. http://community.jboss.org/wiki/GenericTypeCLICommands Advantages - any changes in the management model (added/removed operations, properties, etc) become immediately available in CLI commands without code changes in the CLI; - command help content is generated from the description of type, operations and properties in the management model (so, no text duplication, localization, etc); - commands can be added and removed at runtime and customized by the user; -the total number of cli commands will decrease and they, in a way, will be better categorized. Disadvantages Tab-completion suffers from insufficient info in the management model about the types, values and relationships/dependencies between the node and operation properties. - enumeration values, if the type is boolean, I can do it, but if it's something else (e.g. tx isolation) the allowed values would have to be specified in the management model for the type in fixed format; - exclusive properties, e.g. driver-class/driver-name for datasources. If I code the data-source command myself I can automatically exclude one if the other one has been specified; - referencing properties, e.g. driver-name accepts values that are registered jdbc driver names, for that to tab-complete, this reference would have to be described in the model. There are probably other things that I forgot to mention. I'll follow up if I remember something. As always, feedback, ideas, suggestions are welcome. Thanks, Alexey PS: it's not yet in the master as I send it, I did send the pull request though, so, it's gonna be soon.