te (手)

Your helping hand for command-line interfaces

te (Japanese: 手, "hand") is an interactive TUI wrapper that makes complex CLI commands easier to use by prompting you for required arguments and showing you all available options.

The Problem

Command-line tools are powerful but often hard to remember:

# Which arguments were required again?
aws ec2 run-instances --help  # scroll through walls of text...

# Building complex commands from memory
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name myapp -e ENV=prod -v /data:/data nginx

The Solution

With te, just type the command and it will guide you:

te aws ec2 run-instances

te will:

• 📋 Parse the command's help to identify required and optional arguments
• ✨ Present an interactive TUI for filling in values
• 🎯 Remember your frequently used options
• 💾 Save command history for quick reuse
• ⚡ Generate the final command with one keystroke

Features

🎨 Interactive TUI

Beautiful terminal interface built with ratatui that shows:

• Required arguments (must fill)
• Optional arguments (choose what you need)
• Argument descriptions and types
• Real-time command preview

🧠 Smart Suggestions

• Frequency-based sorting: Most-used options appear first
• Context-aware completions: Suggests valid values based on your environment
• Default values: Mark commonly used values as defaults

📚 History & Presets

# Quick access to command history
te history

# Save frequently used command patterns
te save-preset my-ec2-dev

# Reuse saved presets
te aws ec2 run-instances --preset my-ec2-dev

🔧 Universal Wrapper

Works with any CLI tool:

• aws - AWS CLI
• kubectl - Kubernetes
• docker - Docker
• ffmpeg - Video processing
• git - Version control
• Any command-line tool with --help

Installation

# With cargo
cargo install te-cli

# From source
git clone https://github.com/yusukeshib/te
cd te
cargo build --release

Usage

Basic Usage

# Wrap any command
te <command> [subcommands...]

# Examples
te aws s3 cp
te kubectl create deployment
te docker run
te ffmpeg -i

Command History

# View and reuse previous commands
te history

# Search history
te history --search "ec2"

Presets

# Save current configuration as preset
te save-preset <name>

# Use preset
te <command> --preset <name>

# List all presets
te list-presets

Configuration

Configuration is stored in ~/.te/:

~/.te/
├── config.toml           # Global settings
├── history.db            # Command execution history
├── presets/              # Saved command presets
│   ├── aws-dev.yaml
│   └── kubectl-prod.yaml
└── schemas/              # Custom command schemas (optional)
    └── custom-tool.yaml

Example config.toml

[general]
# Enable frequency-based sorting
smart_sort = true

# Save command history
save_history = true

# Maximum history entries
max_history = 1000

[ui]
# Color scheme: "default", "nord", "dracula"
theme = "default"

# Show preview pane
show_preview = true

How It Works

1. Parse: te runs <command> --help and parses the output to extract arguments
2. Present: Shows an interactive TUI with all options
3. Build: Constructs the final command based on your input
4. Execute: Runs the command or copies it to clipboard

Comparison

Why "te" (手)?

In Japanese, 手 (te) means "hand" - representing:

• 🤝 A helping hand for complex commands
• ✋ Easy to type (just 2 characters)
• 🎌 Honoring the Unix philosophy with a Japanese touch

Roadmap

• Basic TUI interface
• Help parsing
• Command history
• Preset management
• Smart suggestions
• Context-aware completions
• Shell integration (bash, zsh, fish)
• Custom schema support
• Team preset sharing

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details

Credits

Built with:

• ratatui - Terminal UI framework
• crossterm - Cross-platform terminal manipulation
• clap - Command line argument parsing

Star ⭐ this repo if you find it useful!