Scala CLI is a command line tool for running, testing and prototyping of Scala scripts & applications. Since Scala 3.5.0 (released just last year), it is also the official scala runner command of the language.

In all likelihood, you have already given it a spin to run a script here or there, maybe prototyped a pet project or used it to minimise a bug in the compiler. But do you know what lies beyond the --power flag? Why do we even hide features behind it?

In this talk, I will tell the tale of some of the experimental and restricted features of the tool, some of them well known and used, some of them niche and obscure, and then some forgotten and near-abandoned. I will also explain why the --power flag restriction has been introduced in the first place, which features land behind it and how to think about them.