PowerShell Crescendo

Crescendo is a development accelerator enabling you to rapidly build PowerShell cmdlets that leverage existing command-line tools. Crescendo amplifies the command-line experience of the original tool to include object output for the PowerShell pipeline, privilege elevation, and integrated help information. A Crescendo module replaces cumbersome command-line tools with PowerShell cmdlets that are easier to use in automation and packaged to share with team members.

The 1.0.0 release includes the following features:

• Ability to define cmdlets from simple key/value statements in a JSON file
• Support for modular design - cmdlet definitions can be in a one or more JSON files
• A JSON schema that helps you create your Crescendo configuration using IntelliSense and tooltips
• Three styles of output handling code allowing you to separate your code from the cmdlet definitions for easier debugging and development
• Privilege elevation mechanisms in Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Crescendo generates a PowerShell script module ready for deployment
• While Crescendo requires PowerShell 7 or higher for authoring configurations, the generated module can run on Windows PowerShell 5.1 and higher
• Example configurations for you to copy and reuse
• Experimental Help parsers that provide proof-of-concept examples for auto-generating cmdlet configurations

The 1.1.0 release adds the following features:

• New schema to support additional parameter properties
• Added Export-CrescendoCommand cmdlet
• Added NoClobber parameter to Export-CrescendoModule
• Added the ability to bypass all output handling
• Added the ability to handle native command errors in the output handler
• Added the ability to transform arguments

Installing Crescendo

Requirements:

• Microsoft.PowerShell.Crescendo requires PowerShell 7.0 or higher

To install Microsoft.PowerShell.Crescendo:

Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerShell.Crescendo

To install Microsoft.PowerShell.Crescendo using the new PowerShellGet.v3

Install-PSResource -Name Microsoft.PowerShell.Crescendo

Documentation and more information

To get started using Crescendo, check out the documentation.

For a detailed walkthrough using Crescendo, see this excellent blog series from Sean Wheeler - Thanks Sean!

• Crescendo on the PowerShell Community Blog.

Future plans

We value your ideas and feedback and hope you will give Crescendo a try and let us know of any issues you find.

Release history

Release announcements on the PowerShell Blog.

• Dec-2022 - Crescendo 1.1.0-Preview01
• Mar-2022 - Crescendo 1.0.0 GA
• Dec-2021 - Crescendo.RC
• Oct-2021 - Crescendo.Preview.4
• Jul-2021 - Crescendo.Preview.3
• May-2021 - Crescendo.Preview.2
• Dec-2020 - Crescendo.Preview.1