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+.. _mach_commands:
+
+=====================
+Implementing Commands
+=====================
+
+Mach commands are defined via Python decorators.
+
+All the relevant decorators are defined in the *mach.decorators* module.
+The important decorators are as follows:
+
+:py:func:`CommandProvider <mach.decorators.CommandProvider>`
+  A class decorator that denotes that a class contains mach
+  commands. The decorator takes no arguments.
+
+:py:func:`Command <mach.decorators.Command>`
+  A method decorator that denotes that the method should be called when
+  the specified command is requested. The decorator takes a command name
+  as its first argument and a number of additional arguments to
+  configure the behavior of the command.
+
+:py:func:`CommandArgument <mach.decorators.CommandArgument>`
+  A method decorator that defines an argument to the command. Its
+  arguments are essentially proxied to ArgumentParser.add_argument()
+
+:py:func:`SubCommand <mach.decorators.SubCommand>`
+  A method decorator that denotes that the method should be a
+  sub-command to an existing ``@Command``. The decorator takes the
+  parent command name as its first argument and the sub-command name
+  as its second argument.
+
+  ``@CommandArgument`` can be used on ``@SubCommand`` instances just
+  like they can on ``@Command`` instances.
+
+Classes with the ``@CommandProvider`` decorator **must** have an
+``__init__`` method that accepts 1 or 2 arguments. If it accepts 2
+arguments, the 2nd argument will be a
+:py:class:`mach.base.CommandContext` instance.
+
+Here is a complete example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   from mach.decorators import (
+       CommandArgument,
+       CommandProvider,
+       Command,
+   )
+
+   @CommandProvider
+   class MyClass(object):
+       @Command('doit', help='Do ALL OF THE THINGS.')
+       @CommandArgument('--force', '-f', action='store_true',
+           help='Force doing it.')
+       def doit(self, force=False):
+           # Do stuff here.
+
+When the module is loaded, the decorators tell mach about all handlers.
+When mach runs, it takes the assembled metadata from these handlers and
+hooks it up to the command line driver. Under the hood, arguments passed
+to the decorators are being used to help mach parse command arguments,
+formulate arguments to the methods, etc. See the documentation in the
+:py:mod:`mach.base` module for more.
+
+The Python modules defining mach commands do not need to live inside the
+main mach source tree.
+
+Conditionally Filtering Commands
+================================
+
+Sometimes it might only make sense to run a command given a certain
+context. For example, running tests only makes sense if the product
+they are testing has been built, and said build is available. To make
+sure a command is only runnable from within a correct context, you can
+define a series of conditions on the
+:py:func:`Command <mach.decorators.Command>` decorator.
+
+A condition is simply a function that takes an instance of the
+:py:func:`mach.decorators.CommandProvider` class as an argument, and
+returns ``True`` or ``False``. If any of the conditions defined on a
+command return ``False``, the command will not be runnable. The
+docstring of a condition function is used in error messages, to explain
+why the command cannot currently be run.
+
+Here is an example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   from mach.decorators import (
+       CommandProvider,
+       Command,
+   )
+
+   def build_available(cls):
+       """The build needs to be available."""
+       return cls.build_path is not None
+
+    @CommandProvider
+   class MyClass(MachCommandBase):
+       def __init__(self, build_path=None):
+           self.build_path = build_path
+
+       @Command('run_tests', conditions=[build_available])
+       def run_tests(self):
+           # Do stuff here.
+
+It is important to make sure that any state needed by the condition is
+available to instances of the command provider.
+
+By default all commands without any conditions applied will be runnable,
+but it is possible to change this behaviour by setting
+``require_conditions`` to ``True``:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   m = mach.main.Mach()
+   m.require_conditions = True
+
+Minimizing Code in Commands
+===========================
+
+Mach command modules, classes, and methods work best when they are
+minimal dispatchers. The reason is import bloat. Currently, the mach
+core needs to import every Python file potentially containing mach
+commands for every command invocation. If you have dozens of commands or
+commands in modules that import a lot of Python code, these imports
+could slow mach down and waste memory.
+
+It is thus recommended that mach modules, classes, and methods do as
+little work as possible. Ideally the module should only import from
+the :py:mod:`mach` package. If you need external modules, you should
+import them from within the command method.
+
+To keep code size small, the body of a command method should be limited
+to:
+
+1. Obtaining user input (parsing arguments, prompting, etc)
+2. Calling into some other Python package
+3. Formatting output
+
+Of course, these recommendations can be ignored if you want to risk
+slower performance.
+
+In the future, the mach driver may cache the dispatching information or
+have it intelligently loaded to facilitate lazy loading.