1. A method of receiving and translating data within an external programmatic interface (EPI), said method comprising: receiving input into said EPI; traversing said input; where said input is presented in a prescribed format other than CLI, translating said input into translated input comprising a corresponding CLI statement, wherein said translating comprises referencing an IOS CLI Parse Graph; where said input is presented in CLI, translating said input into translated input comprising a corresponding prescribed output format, wherein said translating comprises referencing a model of the prescribed output format derived from the CLI syntax; and outputting said translated input.