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Luis
Luis

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TLDR on Steroids - Meet IntelliShell

#opensource #showdev #tutorial #beginners

Hey dev.to community! 👋

We all love TLDR pages - those fantastic community-driven cheatsheets that give us practical command examples right when we need them. Standard TLDR clients are great for quick lookups, acting like a simplified man page. But let's be honest, how often do you find yourself:

  1. Looking up a tldr page.
  2. Copying an example command.
  3. Pasting it into your terminal.
  4. Painstakingly editing the placeholders?

That workflow isn't exactly seamless. It breaks your flow and feels clunky.

IntelliShell: Integrating TLDR into Your Workflow

That's where IntelliShell comes in. It's a command-line tool designed to be like IntelliSense for your shell. One of its core features is integrating TLDR pages directly into a more ergonomic, interactive experience.

Instead of just viewing TLDR pages, IntelliShell lets you fetch them and incorporate them into its searchable library.

# Fetch TLDR pages for common commands + your OS
intelli-shell tldr fetch

# Or fetch specific commands
intelli-shell tldr fetch -c tar -c git
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Once fetched, these TLDR examples appear right alongside your personal bookmarks when you search (usually via Ctrl+Space).

Beyond Simple Lookups: The IntelliShell Advantage

This is where IntelliShell really shines compared to traditional TLDR clients:

1. Interactive Variable Replacement

TLDR examples often use placeholders like {{source_file}}. Regular clients just display these; you still have to manually replace them.

IntelliShell parses these placeholders and turns the command into an interactive template. When you select a command with variables, IntelliShell prompts you to fill them in, one by one.

2. Smart Suggestion History

Ever find yourself using the same filename or server address repeatedly? IntelliShell remembers the values you've used for each variable. The next time you use that command, your previous inputs are suggested first, saving you tons of re-typing.

3. Context-Aware Ranking

Suggestions aren't just random. IntelliShell ranks them intelligently based on:

  • Usage Frequency: Values you use often appear higher.
  • Working Directory: Values you've used in the current directory (or its parents/children) get a boost. This is incredibly useful for project-specific variables!

4. Seamless Workflow

Forget copy-pasting. With IntelliShell:

  1. Hit Ctrl+Space (or your configured hotkey).
  2. Type a few keywords (e.g., tar extract).
  3. Use arrow keys to select the TLDR example (or a personal bookmark).
  4. Hit Enter.
  5. Fill in the variables using smart suggestions.
  6. The final command is placed on your terminal, ready to execute.

It turns TLDR from a reference tool into an active part of your command execution workflow.

Give it a Try

If you're looking for a smoother way to use TLDR pages and manage your own command snippets, check out IntelliShell on GitHub and follow the Quick Start guide in the Book to get set up in minutes.

Let me know what you think! Does this solve a pain point for you? Any features you'd love to see?

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