How I built a native macOS app to stop Googling CLI commands

Nadav — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:28:17 +0000

If you work in IT, networking, or development, you know the pain of context switching.

I spend a large chunk of my day configuring different network gear (Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper). Every time I needed a specific CLI syntax, I had to break my flow, open a browser, dig through ancient forum posts, and copy-paste the result. Doing this 20 times a day is exhausting.

I wanted a native, lightning-fast solution that didn't consume all my Mac's RAM like an Electron app. So, I built NetLens.

What it is:

NetLens is a lightweight macOS background agent. You hit a global hotkey, type what you need (e.g., "Palo Alto command to restart management server"), and it uses AI to instantly generate the exact CLI commands, ready to copy.

The Tech Stack and Features:

Native Swift/macOS: It lives quietly in your menu bar.

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK): It uses the Gemini API, but you input your own key locally. I don't see your queries or corporate data.

Safety First: I built in a mechanism that automatically flags destructive commands (like reboots or factory resets) with a warning before you can execute them.

Try it out

I decided to package it up and release it for anyone else suffering from CLI fatigue.

You can get it here: https://nadavdebi.gumroad.com/l/netlens
I also set up a discount code for the launch: LAUNCH20

I would love to hear feedback from the community! How do you guys currently manage your CLI snippets?

DEV Community: Nadav

How I built a native macOS app to stop Googling CLI commands