diff --git a/args.go b/args.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2263d40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/args.go
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+package main
+
+/*
+	this parses the command line arguements
+
+	this enables command line options from other packages like 'gui' and 'log'
+*/
+
+import (
+	"go.wit.com/dev/alexflint/arg"
+)
+
+var args struct {
+	ListRepos bool `arg:"--list-repos" help:"list all repositories"`
+}
+
+func init() {
+	arg.MustParse(&args)
+}