77 top-level commands creating confusion and cognitive overload

nself [one of 77 options] → Too many choices!

Authentication scattered:     auth, oauth, mfa, devices, security, roles, webhooks
Database scattered:           db, migrate, backup, restore
Deployment scattered:         deploy, staging, prod, rollback, env, sync, validate
Cloud scattered:              cloud, providers, provision, server, servers, k8s, helm
Observability scattered:      logs, metrics, monitor, health, status, doctor, history, audit, urls, exec
Services scattered:           service, admin, email, search, functions, mlflow, storage, redis, realtime
Security scattered:           security, secrets, vault, ssl, trust, mfa
Developer tools scattered:    dev, perf, bench, scale, frontend, ci, completion

13 logical categories with clear boundaries

nself <category> <action> → Clear mental model!

Core (6 commands)
├── init                    Initialize project
├── build                   Build configs
├── start                   Start services
├── stop                    Stop services
├── restart                 Restart services
└── status                  Service status

Data & Business Logic (4 categories)
├── db                      Database operations (10+ subcommands)
├── auth                    Authentication & authorization (20+ subcommands)
├── tenant                  Multi-tenancy (32+ subcommands)
└── service                 Service management (25+ subcommands)

Infrastructure (3 categories)
├── deploy                  Deployment & environments (15+ subcommands)
├── cloud                   Cloud infrastructure (30+ subcommands)
└── observe                 Monitoring & observability (25+ subcommands)

Security & Tools (3 categories)
├── secure                  Security & compliance (20+ subcommands)
├── plugin                  Plugin management (10+ subcommands)
└── dev                     Developer tools (20+ subcommands)

Configuration (2 categories)
├── config                  Configuration management (10+ subcommands)
└── help                    Help & utilities (4+ subcommands)

init, build, start, stop, restart, status

nself db migrate       nself db backup       nself db types
nself db schema        nself db restore      nself db inspect
nself db seed          nself db shell        nself db data
nself db mock          nself db query

nself auth login              nself auth oauth enable
nself auth signup             nself auth mfa enable
nself auth logout             nself auth devices list
nself auth status             nself auth roles create

nself tenant create           nself tenant billing usage
nself tenant list             nself tenant branding
nself tenant member add       nself tenant domains add
nself tenant setting set      nself tenant email edit

nself service enable          nself service email test
nself service disable         nself service search index
nself service admin open      nself service functions deploy
nself service storage upload  nself service cache flush

nself deploy staging          nself deploy env switch
nself deploy production       nself deploy sync db
nself deploy canary           nself deploy rollback
nself deploy blue-green       nself deploy validate

nself cloud provider list     nself cloud k8s deploy
nself cloud server create     nself cloud helm install
nself cloud server ssh        nself cloud cost compare
nself cloud server list       nself cloud deploy full

nself observe logs            nself observe health check
nself observe metrics         nself observe doctor
nself observe monitor         nself observe history
nself observe urls            nself observe audit
nself observe exec

nself secure scan             nself secure vault init
nself secure incidents        nself secure ssl generate
nself secure secrets set      nself secure headers config
nself secure webauthn add     nself secure ssl trust

nself plugin list             nself plugin status
nself plugin install          nself plugin stripe sync
nself plugin remove           nself plugin github repos
nself plugin update           nself plugin shopify orders

nself dev perf profile        nself dev frontend add
nself dev bench run           nself dev ci init
nself dev scale postgres      nself dev completion bash
nself dev watch

nself config show             nself config validate
nself config set              nself config clean
nself config edit             nself config reset
nself config diff

nself help                    nself version
nself update                  nself upgrade

nself
├── Core (Always available)
│   ├── init
│   ├── build
│   ├── start
│   ├── stop
│   ├── restart
│   └── status
│
├── Data Layer
│   ├── db
│   │   ├── migrate (up, down, create, status)
│   │   ├── schema (scaffold, import, apply, diagram)
│   │   ├── seed (users, create)
│   │   ├── mock (auto)
│   │   ├── backup / restore
│   │   ├── shell / query
│   │   ├── types (typescript, go, python)
│   │   ├── inspect (size, slow)
│   │   └── data (export, anonymize)
│   │
│   ├── auth
│   │   ├── login / signup / logout / status
│   │   ├── oauth (install, enable, config, test, list)
│   │   ├── mfa (enable, disable, verify, backup-codes, qr)
│   │   ├── devices (list, revoke, trust)
│   │   ├── roles (list, create, assign, permissions)
│   │   └── webhooks (list, create, test)
│   │
│   └── tenant
│       ├── init / create / list / show / suspend / activate / delete / stats
│       ├── member (add, remove, list)
│       ├── billing (usage, invoice, subscription, payment, quota, plan, export, customer)
│       ├── branding / domains / email / themes
│       └── setting (set, get, list)
│
├── Infrastructure Layer
│   ├── service
│   │   ├── list / enable / disable / status / restart / logs
│   │   ├── admin (status, open, users, config, dev)
│   │   ├── email (test, inbox, config)
│   │   ├── search (index, query, stats)
│   │   ├── functions (deploy, invoke, logs, list)
│   │   ├── mlflow (ui, experiments, runs, artifacts)
│   │   ├── storage (init, upload, list, delete, config, status, test)
│   │   ├── cache (stats, flush, keys)
│   │   ├── realtime (status, channels, broadcast)
│   │   └── rate-limit (config, status, reset)
│   │
│   ├── deploy
│   │   ├── staging / production / rollback
│   │   ├── preview / canary / blue-green
│   │   ├── check / status
│   │   ├── env (list, create, switch, diff)
│   │   ├── sync (db, files, config, full, auto, watch, status, history)
│   │   └── validate (config, env)
│   │
│   ├── cloud
│   │   ├── provider (list, init, validate, info)
│   │   ├── server (create, destroy, list, status, ssh, add, remove)
│   │   ├── cost (estimate, compare)
│   │   ├── deploy (quick, full)
│   │   ├── k8s (init, convert, apply, deploy, status, logs, scale, rollback, delete, cluster, namespace)
│   │   └── helm (init, generate, install, upgrade, rollback, uninstall, list, status, values, template, package, repo)
│   │
│   └── observe
│       ├── logs [service]
│       ├── metrics [service]
│       ├── monitor (status, enable, alerts, grafana)
│       ├── health (check, service, endpoint, watch, history, config)
│       ├── doctor [--fix]
│       ├── history (show, deployments, migrations, rollbacks, commands, search, export, clear)
│       ├── audit (events, users, export)
│       ├── urls [--env, --diff]
│       └── exec <service> <cmd>
│
├── Security & Tooling
│   ├── secure
│   │   ├── scan (all, passwords, mfa, sessions, suspicious)
│   │   ├── incidents (list, show, resolve)
│   │   ├── events (list, show)
│   │   ├── webauthn (list, add, remove)
│   │   ├── headers (show, config, test)
│   │   ├── secrets (list, set, get, delete, rotate)
│   │   ├── vault (init, status, seal, unseal, backup, restore)
│   │   └── ssl (generate, install, renew, trust, verify)
│   │
│   ├── plugin
│   │   ├── list / install / remove / update / refresh / status
│   │   ├── stripe (sync, customers, subscriptions, invoices, webhook)
│   │   ├── github (sync, repos, issues, prs, workflows, webhook)
│   │   └── shopify (sync, products, orders, customers, webhook)
│   │
│   └── dev
│       ├── start / stop / status / watch
│       ├── perf (profile, analyze, slow-queries, report, dashboard, suggest)
│       ├── bench (run, baseline, compare, stress, report)
│       ├── scale <service> [--auto]
│       ├── frontend (status, list, add, remove, deploy, logs, env)
│       ├── ci (init, validate, status)
│       └── completion (bash, zsh, fish, install)
│
└── Configuration & Help
    ├── config
    │   ├── show / get / set / list / edit
    │   ├── validate / diff / export / import / reset
    │   └── clean / reset [--hard]
    │
    └── help / version / update / upgrade

✅ New commands work alongside old
✅ Zero breaking changes
✅ Users can start trying new syntax

⚠️  Old commands show deprecation notice
⚠️  Suggest new command
✅ Continue working normally

✅ Smart redirects
✅ Telemetry tracking (opt-in)
✅ Maintained for 2+ versions

❌ Old commands removed
✅ Helpful error messages
✅ Migration guide available

$ nself help
Usage: nself <command>

Commands:
  admin          Admin UI
  admin-dev      Admin dev mode
  audit          Audit trail
  auth           Authentication
  backup         Backup database
  bench          Benchmarking
  billing        Billing management
  build          Build project
  ci             CI/CD generation
  clean          Clean resources
  cloud          Cloud infrastructure
  completion     Shell completion
  config         Configuration
  db             Database operations
  deploy         Deploy application
  dev            Development mode
  devices        User devices
  doctor         Diagnostics
  down           Stop services
  email          Email service
  env            Environment management
  exec           Execute in container
  frontend       Frontend apps
  functions      Serverless functions
  health         Health checks
  helm           Helm charts
  help           Show help
  history        History
  init           Initialize project
  k8s            Kubernetes
  logs           View logs
  metrics        Metrics
  mfa            Multi-factor auth
  migrate        Migrations
  mlflow         ML tracking
  monitor        Monitoring
  nself          nself CLI
  oauth          OAuth providers
  org            Organizations
  perf           Performance
  plugin         Plugins
  prod           Production
  providers      Cloud providers
  provision      Provision servers
  rate-limit     Rate limiting
  realtime       Realtime service
  redis          Redis cache
  reset          Reset project
  restart        Restart services
  restore        Restore database
  roles          User roles
  rollback       Rollback deployment
  scale          Service scaling
  search         Search service
  secrets        Secrets management
  security       Security
  server         Server management
  servers        List servers
  service        Service management
  ssl            SSL certificates
  staging        Staging deployment
  start          Start services
  status         Service status
  stop           Stop services
  storage        Object storage
  sync           Sync data
  tenant         Multi-tenancy
  trust          Trust certificates
  up             Start services
  update         Update nself
  upgrade        Upgrade nself
  urls           Service URLs
  validate       Validate config
  vault          Vault management
  version        Show version
  webhooks       Webhooks
  whitelabel     White-label

(77 commands - overwhelming!)

$ nself help
Usage: nself <category> <action>

Core Commands:
  init          Initialize project
  build         Build configs
  start         Start services
  stop          Stop services
  restart       Restart services
  status        Service status

Main Categories:
  db            Database operations (migrate, backup, types, etc.)
  auth          Authentication & authorization (login, oauth, mfa, roles, etc.)
  tenant        Multi-tenancy (create, billing, branding, domains, etc.)
  service       Service management (admin, email, search, storage, etc.)

  deploy        Deployment & environments (staging, prod, sync, etc.)
  cloud         Cloud infrastructure (providers, servers, k8s, helm, etc.)
  observe       Monitoring & observability (logs, metrics, health, etc.)
  secure        Security & compliance (scan, secrets, vault, ssl, etc.)

  plugin        Plugin management (install, update, stripe, github, etc.)
  dev           Developer tools (perf, bench, frontend, ci, etc.)
  config        Configuration (show, edit, validate, clean, etc.)

Utilities:
  help          Show help
  version       Show version
  update        Update nself
  upgrade       Upgrade nself

For category help: nself help <category>
For command help:  nself <category> <action> --help

(13 categories - easy to scan!)