diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/cat/cat.js b/implement-shell-tools/cat/cat.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ff592b5f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/cat/cat.js
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import process from "node:process";
+
+// Note: takes only one flag, -n or -b, and accepts whatever the last flag is
+// can parse flag from any position in args
+
+// capturing the user args
+const args = process.argv.slice(2);
+
+let flag;
+const paths = [];
+
+// the * (glob expansion is done automatically by zsh, bash etc. on linux)
+for (const arg of args) {
+    if (arg === "-n" || arg === "-b") {
+        flag = arg;
+    } else {
+        paths.push(arg);
+    }
+}
+
+// if no file is supplied exit with error
+if (paths.length === 0) {
+    console.error("usage: cat [-n] <file...>");
+    process.exit(1);
+}
+
+// starting file number, if lines need to be prepended
+
+for (const path of paths) {
+    let lineNum = 1;
+    let file;
+    try {
+        // using sync as it's a simple short program
+        file = readFileSync(path, "utf-8");
+    } catch (err) {
+        console.error(`cat: ${path}: ${err.message}`);
+        continue; // Real cat continues to next file if current file not found
+    }
+
+    const lines = file.split("\n");
+
+    // remove trailing empty line as this how real cat works
+    if (lines[lines.length - 1] === "") lines.pop();
+
+    if (flag === "-n") {
+        for (const line of lines) {
+            console.log(`${lineNum} ${line}`);
+            lineNum++;
+        }
+    } else if (flag === "-b") {
+        for (const line of lines) {
+            if (line === "") {
+                console.log(line);
+            } else {
+                console.log(`${lineNum} ${line}`);
+                lineNum++;
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        for (const line of lines) {
+            console.log(line);
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/cat/package.json b/implement-shell-tools/cat/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c927a8982
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/cat/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+{
+    "name": "cat",
+    "version": "1.0.0",
+    "description": "You should already be familiar with the `cat` command line tool.",
+    "main": "cat.js",
+    "scripts": {
+        "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
+    },
+    "keywords": [],
+    "author": "",
+    "license": "ISC",
+    "type": "module"
+}
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/ls/ls.js b/implement-shell-tools/ls/ls.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ddbc14e13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/ls/ls.js
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+import fs from "node:fs";
+import process from "node:process";
+
+const args = process.argv.slice(2);
+
+const flags = new Set();
+let paths = [];
+
+let isFlag = true;
+for (const arg of args) {
+    if (isFlag && arg === "--") {
+        isFlag = false;
+    } else if (isFlag && arg.startsWith("-") && arg !== "-") {
+        // capture the flags without the -
+        // supports combined flags like -1a
+        for (const ch of arg.slice(1)) {
+            flags.add(ch);
+        }
+    } else {
+        paths.push(arg);
+    }
+}
+
+if (paths.length === 0) {
+    paths.push(".");
+}
+
+// returns all entries for a given path
+// if -a flag, then include dotfiles, else exclude dotfiles
+function getPathEntries(path, aFlag = flags.has("a")) {
+    let entries = fs.readdirSync(path);
+
+    if (!aFlag) {
+        entries = entries.filter((e) => !e.startsWith("."));
+    }
+    return entries;
+}
+
+// formatter: if -1 flag, print entry per line
+// else all in one line with
+function printEntries(entries, onePerLineFlag = flags.has("1")) {
+    if (onePerLineFlag) {
+        entries.forEach((e) => console.log(e));
+    } else {
+        // if join on empty entries arr, add extra blank line
+        if (entries.length !== 0) {
+            console.log(entries.join("\t"));
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+// this is needed to group files at the top and folers at the bottom when giving mutiple path arguements
+// to argv e.g. node ls.js sample-files/*
+const fileArgs = paths.filter((p) => !fs.statSync(p).isDirectory());
+const dirArgs = paths.filter((p) => fs.statSync(p).isDirectory());
+
+// First print all plain file arguments together, as one group
+if (fileArgs.length > 0) {
+    printEntries(fileArgs);
+}
+
+// Then print each directory's listing, with headers if needed
+dirArgs.forEach((path, index) => {
+    if (paths.length > 1) {
+        if (index > 0 || fileArgs.length > 0) console.log("");
+        console.log(`${path}:`);
+    }
+    printEntries(getPathEntries(path));
+});
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/wc/package-lock.json b/implement-shell-tools/wc/package-lock.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..11fb6ab6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/wc/package-lock.json
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+{
+    "name": "wc",
+    "version": "1.0.0",
+    "lockfileVersion": 3,
+    "requires": true,
+    "packages": {
+        "": {
+            "name": "wc",
+            "version": "1.0.0",
+            "license": "ISC",
+            "dependencies": {
+                "commander": "^15.0.0"
+            }
+        },
+        "node_modules/commander": {
+            "version": "15.0.0",
+            "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/commander/-/commander-15.0.0.tgz",
+            "integrity": "sha512-z67u4ZhzCL/Tydu1lJARtEZYWbWaN7oYLHbsuzocr6y4N6WZAagG3RQ4FW61V1/0+jImpj293XfrcYnd1qxtPg==",
+            "license": "MIT",
+            "engines": {
+                "node": ">=22.12.0"
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/wc/package.json b/implement-shell-tools/wc/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..489705b8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/wc/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+{
+    "name": "wc",
+    "version": "1.0.0",
+    "description": "You should already be familiar with the `wc` command line tool.",
+    "main": "wc.js",
+    "scripts": {
+        "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
+    },
+    "keywords": [],
+    "author": "",
+    "license": "ISC",
+    "type": "module",
+    "dependencies": {
+        "commander": "^15.0.0"
+    }
+}
diff --git a/implement-shell-tools/wc/wc.js b/implement-shell-tools/wc/wc.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3cb4c8cbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/implement-shell-tools/wc/wc.js
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+import { program } from "commander";
+import fs, { chownSync } from "node:fs";
+import process from "node:process";
+
+program
+    .name("wc")
+    .description("Mimics the wc command line tool")
+    .option("-w")
+    .option("-c")
+    .option("-l")
+    .argument("<files...>", "files to process");
+
+program.parse();
+
+const options = program.opts();
+const paths = program.args;
+
+// if no -lwc flags are supplied, wc prints
+// lines, words, bytes of each file
+// whereas if any flags are supplied only those
+// values are printed
+if (Object.keys(options).length === 0) {
+    options.l = options.w = options.c = true;
+}
+
+// keeps track of total values for each of the data
+// incrementally updated in the loop below
+const totals = { l: 0, w: 0, c: 0 };
+
+let fileCount = 0;
+for (const path of paths) {
+    if (fs.statSync(path).isDirectory()) {
+        console.log(`wc: ${path}: read: Is a directory`);
+    } else {
+        fileCount++;
+        let outputStr = "";
+        const file = fs.readFileSync(path, "utf-8");
+        if (options.l) {
+            const lines = file.split("\n");
+            // exclude trailing empty line from count
+            if (lines.at(-1) === "") {
+                lines.pop();
+            }
+            const lineCount = lines.length;
+            totals.l += lineCount;
+            outputStr += `\t${lineCount}`;
+        }
+
+        if (options.w) {
+            // real wc splits not just on " ", but on white spaces more generally
+            const words = file.split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean);
+            const wordCount = words.length;
+            totals.w += wordCount;
+            outputStr += `\t${wordCount}`;
+        }
+
+        if (options.c) {
+            file.size;
+            const byteCount = fs.statSync(path).size;
+            totals.c += byteCount;
+            outputStr += `\t${byteCount}`;
+        }
+
+        outputStr += ` ${path}`;
+        console.log(outputStr);
+    }
+}
+
+// if there's more than one file, print out a total
+// if a flag is not selected, then the value for that flag is 0
+// filter out anything with a total of 0
+if (fileCount > 1) {
+    const totalsArr = Object.values(totals).filter((elem) => elem !== 0);
+    console.log(`\t${totalsArr.join("\t")} total`);
+}