Choosing CLI or Python

Need	Prefer
One-off validation in a shell or CI job	CLI (cp-validate)
Embed validation in a Python pipeline	validate()
Custom rendering or programmatic filtering of issues	Python API + reporting helpers
Inspect built-in schemas quickly	CLI schema list / schema show

Both surfaces share the same engine, schemas, rule codes and exit semantics. The CLI is a thin Typer wrapper around validate() plus the console/JSON/HTML renderers.

See CLI reference and Python API.