diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/.gitignore b/implement-shell-tools/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c3c80962
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+node_modules/
+*.log
+.DS_Store
+.env
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/cat/cat.js b/implement-shell-tools/cat/cat.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ae33600c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/cat/cat.js
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+import { program } from "commander";
+import { promises as fs } from "node:fs";
+import process from "node:process";
+
+// configure the CLI program with its name, description, arguments, options, and actions (the help instructions)
+program
+    .name("cat")
+    .description("An alternative to the 'cat' command")
+    .argument("<files...>", "The file(s) to process") 
+    .option("-n, --number", "Number all output lines")
+    .option("-b, --number-nonblank", "Number non-blank output lines")
+    .action(async (files, options) => {
+        try {
+            await newCat(files, options);
+        } catch (err) {
+            console.error(`Error: ${err.message}`);
+        }
+    });
+
+program.parse(process.argv);
+
+//helper function to format output
+function printLine(line, lineNumber, padWidth) {
+    if (lineNumber !== null) {
+        console.log(`${lineNumber.toString().padStart(padWidth, '  ')}  ${line}`);
+    } else {
+        console.log(line);
+    }
+}
+
+async function newCat(files, options) {
+    let lineNumber = 1;
+    const padWidth = 6;
+
+    for (const file of files) {
+        // read each file into a single text string
+        try {
+            const data = await fs.readFile(file, "utf8");
+            // split that string into an array at \n where each element is a line from the file
+            // e.g. lines = ["Line 1", "Line 2", "Line 3"]
+            const lines = data.split("\n")
+
+            // remove trailing blank line caused by a trailing newline
+            if (lines[lines.length - 1] === "") {
+                lines.pop();
+            }
+
+            lines.forEach(line => {
+                //line trim: truthy = text, falsy = blank
+                if (options.numberNonblank && line.trim()) {
+                    // number non-blank lines only
+                    printLine(line, lineNumber++, padWidth);
+                }  else if (options.number){
+                    // number all lines
+                    printLine(line, lineNumber++, padWidth);
+                } else {
+                    // neither flag, print normally
+                   printLine(line, null, padWidth)
+                }
+            });
+        } catch (err) {
+            console.error(`Error reading file ${file}: ${err.message}`);
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/ls/ls.js b/implement-shell-tools/ls/ls.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6c6f40f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/ls/ls.js
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+import { program } from "commander";
+import { promises as fs } from "node:fs";
+import process from "node:process";
+
+// configure the CLI program with its name, description, arguments, options, and actions (the help instructions)
+program
+    .name("ls")
+    .description("An alternative to the 'ls' command")
+    .argument("[directory]", "The directory to list")
+    // Commander stores -1 as a string key that is accessed using options['1']
+    .option("-1", "List all files, one per line")
+    .option("-a, --all", "Include hidden files (those starting with .) in the listing")
+    .action(async (directory, options) => {
+        try {
+            // default to current directory if none is specified
+            const dir = directory || ".";
+
+            await newLs(dir, options['1'], options.all);
+        } catch (err) {
+            console.error(`Error: ${err.message}`);
+        }
+    });
+
+program.parse(process.argv);
+
+
+// filter files based on visibility (includeHidden = true includes all files)
+function filterFiles(entries, includeHidden) {
+    return entries.filter(name =>
+        includeHidden ? true : !name.startsWith(".")
+    );
+}
+
+// sort entries: directories first, then files,
+function sortEntries(entries) {
+    const dirs = entries.filter(entry => {
+        try {
+            return fs.statSync(entry).isDirectory();
+        } catch (err) {
+            return false;
+        }
+    });
+
+    const files = entries.filter(entry => {
+        try {
+            return fs.statSync(entry).isFile();
+        } catch (err) {
+            return false;
+        }
+    });
+    // localeCompare = take into account rules of system language/region for ordering 
+    // undefined = uses the system default, numeric = regular number sorting, base = ignore case & accents
+    return entries.sort((a, b) =>
+        a.localeCompare(b, undefined, { numeric: true, sensitivity: "base" })
+    );
+}
+
+
+// print each entry on its own line (used for -1 flag)
+function printEntries(entries) {
+    entries.forEach(entry => console.log(entry));
+}
+
+
+async function newLs(directory, oneFlag, allFlag) {
+    try {
+        // check if path exists and determine if file or directory
+        const stats = await fs.stat(directory);
+        
+        // if a file, just print the name
+        if (stats.isFile()) {
+            console.log(directory);
+            return;
+        }
+
+        // reads directory contents 
+        const entries = await fs.readdir(directory);
+
+        // filter out hidden files if no -a flag
+        const filteredEntries = filterFiles(entries, allFlag);
+
+        // sort the entries using the sortEntries helper
+        const sortedEntries = sortEntries(filteredEntries);
+        
+        // print entries based on -1 flag
+        if (oneFlag) {
+            printEntries(sortedEntries); // one per line
+        } else {
+            console.log(sortedEntries.join("  ")); // all on one line, separated by spaces
+        }
+    } catch (err) {
+        console.error(`ls: cannot access '${directory}': ${err.message}`);
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/package-lock.json b/implement-shell-tools/package-lock.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..38a22987
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/package-lock.json
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+{
+  "name": "implement-shell-tools",
+  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "lockfileVersion": 3,
+  "requires": true,
+  "packages": {
+    "": {
+      "name": "implement-shell-tools",
+      "version": "1.0.0",
+      "license": "ISC",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "commander": "^14.0.2"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/commander": {
+      "version": "14.0.2",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-14.0.2.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-TywoWNNRbhoD0BXs1P3ZEScW8W5iKrnbithIl0YH+uCmBd0QpPOA8yc82DS3BIE5Ma6FnBVUsJ7wVUDz4dvOWQ==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=20"
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/package.json b/implement-shell-tools/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..32d31991
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{
+  "name": "implement-shell-tools",
+  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "type": "module",
+  "dependencies": {
+    "commander": "^14.0.2"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/wc/wc.js b/implement-shell-tools/wc/wc.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7b977617
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/wc/wc.js
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+import { program } from "commander";
+import { promises as fs } from "node:fs";
+import process from "node:process";
+
+// configure the CLI program with its name, description, arguments, options, and actions (the help instructions)
+program
+  .name("wc")
+  .description("An alternative to the 'wc' command")
+  .argument("<files...>", "The file(s) to count lines/words/bytes")
+  .option("-l, --lines", "Print the newline counts")
+  .option("-w, --words", "Print the word counts")
+  .option("-c, --bytes", "Print the byte counts")
+  .action(async (files, options) => {
+        try {
+            // call newWc for all files
+            await newWc(files, options)
+        } catch (err) {
+        console.error(`Error: ${err.message}`);
+        }
+  });
+
+  program.parse(process.argv);
+
+//helper function to format string for output
+function formatCount(count) {
+    const paddingStart = 3
+    return count.toString().padStart(paddingStart);
+}
+
+
+// helper function to print the wc outputs per case
+function printWcOutput(lineCount, wordCount, byteCount, file, options, noFlags) {
+    const parts = [];
+
+    if (noFlags || options.lines) parts.push(formatCount(lineCount));
+    if (noFlags || options.words) parts.push(formatCount(wordCount));
+    if (noFlags || options.bytes) parts.push(formatCount(byteCount));
+    
+    parts.push(file);
+    console.log(parts.join(" "));
+}
+
+async function newWc(files, options) {
+
+    const noFlags =
+    !options.lines &&
+    !options.words &&
+    !options.bytes;
+
+    // set the counts variables
+    let totalLines = 0;
+    let totalWords = 0;
+    let totalBytes = 0;
+
+    for (const file of files) {
+        try {
+            // read each file into a single text string
+            const content = await fs.readFile(file, "utf8");
+
+            // count lines by splitting on '\n' and subtracting 1 because
+            // each newline creates an extra array element, so length-1 equals the number of newline characters
+            const lineCount = content.split("\n").length - 1;
+
+            // .filter(Boolean) ensures that falsy values like "" (empty string), null, undefined, 0, false are removed
+            const wordCount = content.split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean).length;
+        
+            // calculates the number of bytes the file uses when encoded as UTF-8.
+            // different than just counting chars as some chars (like emojis, accented letters, etc) take more than 1 byte
+            const byteCount = Buffer.byteLength(content, "utf8");
+
+            // update the count
+            totalLines += lineCount;
+            totalWords += wordCount;
+            totalBytes += byteCount;
+
+            printWcOutput(lineCount, wordCount, byteCount, file, options, noFlags);     
+        } catch (err) {
+            console.error(`Error reading file ${file}: ${err.message}`);
+        }
+    }
+    if (files.length > 1) {
+    // print the totals as wc does
+    printWcOutput(totalLines, totalWords, totalBytes,  "total", options, noFlags);
+}
+}