This document discusses mocking command line interfaces (CLIs) with Python and unittest for testing purposes. It outlines that testing CLIs directly can have long feedback loops, so mocking allows for faster tests. Python/unittest is recommended over other options like Bash due to its mature testing framework. The approach demonstrated uses MagicMock to mock external calls like AWS CLI, cURL and etcdctl, returning predefined responses. A sample test mocks cURL calls to return hardcoded values to test instance ID retrieval without real calls. Potential challenges discussed include test discovery and order of mock object patching.