How I Track 50+ Vibe Projects Without Leaving the Terminal

Tema Snow — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 02:21:00 +0000

I vibe-code 2-3 projects a day with Claude Code. After a couple of weeks I had 20+ folders and couldn't remember what any of them did, where I left off, or which ones were worth continuing.

Notion? Too slow to open. I needed something that works at the speed of ls.

So I built drift — a terminal-based project tracker for people who code with AI.

What drift does

PS. I hid most of my private project :)

One command to see all your projects, their status, progress, and when you last touched them.

The TUI

drift without arguments opens a fullscreen dual-panel interface. Navigate with j/k, press Enter to see project details, Tab to cycle through info/goals/notes.

Everything is keyboard-driven. No mouse needed. No flicker.

Key shortcuts:

1-5 to set status (active → idea → paused → done → abandoned)
g to add a goal, n to add a note
t to toggle tree/flat view
/ to live-filter projects
c to launch Claude Code directly in the project

The protocol, not the tool

Here's the thing that makes drift different: the file format is the product.

your-project/
  .drift/
    project.json    # everything about this project

It's plain JSON. No database, no server, no sync service. Git-friendly. Anyone can build a drift-compatible tool.

The CLI and TUI are just two consumers of this protocol. You could build a VS Code extension, a web dashboard, or a Raycast plugin that reads the same .drift/project.json files.

Claude Code integration

This is where it gets interesting. drift init adds a ## drift section to your project's CLAUDE.md. When Claude Code starts a session, it reads this and automatically maintains your goals and notes as it works.

You code with AI → drift tracks what the AI did. Automatically.

Install

# Homebrew
brew install snowtema/tap/drift

# Go
go install github.com/snowtema/drift/cmd@latest

# Or grab a binary
# https://github.com/snowtema/drift/releases

Why Go?

Single binary. 5MB. Zero runtime dependencies. Works on Mac, Linux, Windows. No Node.js, no Python, no Docker.

I used bubbletea for the TUI — it's the best terminal UI framework I've ever used.

What's next

Dashboard view (project stats, burndown)
Team sync (shared registry)
More AI tool integrations

The repo is MIT licensed: github.com/snowtema/drift

If you vibe-code and lose track of your projects, give it a try. Stars and feedback welcome

DEV Community: Tema Snow