Skip to main content

A Friendly CLI Alias Manager

Project description

qwik — A Friendly CLI Alias Manager

Coverage Bugs Quality Gate Status

Create, manage, and run shell aliases from a single interface. Works cross-platform with bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell, and cmd.

Two ways to run any alias:

  • gs — native shell command (after one-time hook install)
  • qwik -r gs — works anywhere, no setup needed

Table of Contents


Installation

Not yet published to PyPI; install from source.

pipx install git+https://github.com/ragilhadi/qwik.git

Or with uv:

uv tool install git+https://github.com/ragilhadi/qwik.git

Quick Start

qwik add gs "git status"
qwik init zsh --install
source ~/.zshrc

gs                      # native shell alias
qwik -r gs               # same thing, no hook needed

Core Concepts

Two ways to run

Way Example When to use
Native gs Daily use after one-time shell hook setup
Via qwik qwik -r gs Scripts, CI, restricted shells, or pre-setup

Both share the same store and substitution engine — behavior is identical.

How it works

  1. You register aliases with qwik add
  2. You install a one-line shell hook with qwik init --install
  3. Every new shell session regenerates shell-native aliases from the store
  4. You type gs just like a normal alias — because it is one

Commands

add — Create alias

qwik add gs "git status"
qwik add gs "git status" --tag git --description "Repo status"
qwik add gs "git status" --force       # overwrite existing
qwik add                               # interactive mode

rm — Delete alias

qwik rm gs
qwik rm gs --yes                       # skip confirmation

rename — Rename alias

qwik rename gs gstat                   # preserves stats

edit — Edit in $EDITOR

qwik edit gs
# Opens TOML snippet in your $EDITOR:
#   command = "git status"
#   tag = ["git"]
#   description = ""
#   enabled = true
# Save and quit to apply changes.

enable / disable — Toggle without deleting

qwik disable gs                        # hides from shell hook
qwik enable gs                         # re-enables

list — Pretty table

qwik list                              # all aliases
qwik -l                                # shortcut
qwik list --tag git                    # filter by tag
qwik list --search stat                # filter by query

Output:

  Name   Command                     Tag    Used   Last
 ─────  ──────────────────────────  ─────  ─────  ───────────
  gs     git status                  git     42     2 min ago
  gco    git checkout {1}            git     18     1 hour ago
  k      kubectl                     k8s      7     yesterday

show — Detailed view

qwik show gs                           # full metadata

search — Fuzzy search

qwik search "git"
qwik -s "git"                          # shortcut

pick — Interactive fuzzy picker

qwik                                   # bare invocation
qwik pick
  • Type characters to filter matching aliases live
  • / navigate
  • Enter runs the selected alias
  • Ctrl+E edits it
  • Ctrl+D deletes it
  • Esc cancels

run — Execute alias

qwik run gs
qwik run gs --short                    # pass extra args
qwik -r gs --short                     # shortcut flag

tag / untag

qwik tag gs git
qwik tag gs work
qwik untag gs work

export / import

qwik export ~/aliases.toml             # share / backup
qwik import ~/aliases.toml             # merge
qwik import ~/aliases.toml --overwrite

doctor — Health check

qwik doctor                            # shell, hook, store, conflicts

init — Shell hook

qwik init zsh                          # print hook to stdout
qwik init zsh --install                # append to ~/.zshrc with backup

Supported shells: bash, zsh, fish, pwsh.

Version & Help

qwik --version
qwik -v
qwik --help
qwik -h
qwik --no-color           # disable colored output for this invocation

Alias Templates & Arguments

Aliases can pass arguments through unchanged or interpolate them into the command.

Append mode (default — no placeholders)

Extra args are appended after quoting.

qwik add gs "git status"
gs --short              # → git status --short

Template mode (placeholders)

Use {…} markers to substitute arguments into the command.

Placeholder Meaning
{1}, {2}, {3} Nth positional argument (1-based)
{@} All arguments joined with spaces
{*} All arguments as a single quoted string
{1:-default} Nth positional, falling back to default if missing

Single positional:

qwik add gco "git checkout {1}"
gco main                # → git checkout main

Note: {1}, {@}, and {N:-default} interpolations are shlex.quoted at runtime, so args containing shell metacharacters are passed safely. {*} is shell-quoted as a single string. For example, qwik run gco '; rm -rf /' expands to git checkout '; rm -rf /' — the ; is quoted and treated as a literal argument, not a command separator.

Multiple positionals:

qwik add gcm 'git commit -m "{1}: {2}"'
gcm feat "add login"
# → git commit -m "feat: add login"

Default value:

qwik add gpo "git push origin {1:-main}"
gpo                     # → git push origin main
gpo feature/x           # → git push origin feature/x

All args joined:

qwik add gc-chore 'git commit -m "chore: {@}"'
gc-chore init version
# → git commit -m "chore: init version"

All args as one quoted string:

qwik add note 'echo "Note: {*}"'
note hello world
# → echo "Note: 'hello world'"

Mixed — template + appended extras:

qwik add k "kubectl {1}"
k get pods -n kube-system
# → kubectl get pods -n kube-system
#     {1}=get, "pods -n kube-system" appended after template

Placeholder defaults

{N:-default} is especially useful for aliases with a sensible fallback:

qwik add co "git checkout {1:-main}"
co feature              # → git checkout feature
co                      # → git checkout main (default)

Validation

  • {0} is rejected at add-time and at run-time — placeholders are 1-based
  • Missing required args produce a clear error at runtime instead of silently expanding to empty strings

Shell Integration

Make aliases available as real shell commands.

One-time setup

bash:

qwik init bash --install
source ~/.bashrc

zsh:

qwik init zsh --install
source ~/.zshrc

fish:

qwik init fish --install
source ~/.config/fish/config.fish

PowerShell:

qwik init pwsh --install

The --install flag:

  • Creates a timestamped backup of your rc file
  • Appends the hook (idempotent — safe to run multiple times)

Manual setup

If you prefer to edit your rc file directly, qwik init <shell> prints the hook:

eval "$(qwik init zsh)"

Per-shell rendering

The hook generates native aliases/functions for each shell:

Shell Append mode Template mode
bash / zsh alias gs='git status' gs() { git checkout "$1" ; }
fish alias gs 'git status' function gs ; … ; end
PowerShell function gs { echo hi @args } function gs { echo "{1}" $args[0] }
cmd doskey gs=git status $* (best-effort, no template)

Conflict Detection

Every add and rename validates the new name:

# Check Result
1 Already an alias? Refuse unless --force
2 Shell builtin? (cd, echo, alias, …) Refuse unless --force
3 Binary on $PATH? Warn but allow
4 Valid syntax? Refuse if it contains spaces, slashes, $, backticks, semicolons

Example UX:

qwik add ls "ls --color=auto" Warning: "ls" shadows /usr/bin/ls.
  Continue? [y/N]

qwik add cd "echo nope" "cd" is a shell builtin. Shadowing it can break your shell.

qwik add "my alias" "echo hi" Invalid name "my alias": contains whitespace.

Storage & Backups

  • Linux/macOS: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/qwik/aliases.toml (usually ~/.config/qwik/aliases.toml)
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\qwik\aliases.toml
  • Backups: every destructive operation writes to qwik/backups/aliases-<timestamp>.toml (last 20 kept)
  • Atomic writes: temp file + rename to prevent corruption
  • Format: human-readable TOML, safe to edit by hand

Example store file:

[aliases.gs]
command = "git status"
tag = ["git"]
description = "Quick git status"
enabled = true
created_at = "2026-05-10T10:00:00Z"
updated_at = "2026-05-10T10:00:00Z"
last_used = "2026-05-10T11:30:00Z"
run_count = 42

Environment Variables

Variable Purpose
EDITOR Editor for qwik edit (default: vi)
QWIK_CONFIG_DIR Override default config directory
XDG_CONFIG_HOME Base config dir (used by fish rc resolution)
QWIK_DEBUG=1 Enable debug logs to stderr
NO_COLOR Disable colored output (also --no-color)

Development

# Install with dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run the test suite
pytest

# With coverage report
pytest --cov=qwik --cov-report=term-missing

License

MIT

Project details


Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

qwik-0.2.0.tar.gz (78.1 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

qwik-0.2.0-py3-none-any.whl (46.9 kB view details)

Uploaded Python 3

File details

Details for the file qwik-0.2.0.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: qwik-0.2.0.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 78.1 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.12.13

File hashes

Hashes for qwik-0.2.0.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 ac2a5582aff3c7c531ee46f08dd10f5f986036aa6df0c8be48a92b09ab04c9df
MD5 44c0f6c2c3b23e1e44d08bf0d35ece1c
BLAKE2b-256 d646cb7415d6a4c99296eb1e9561a8adf28a8c771431147f840238ae41c8d179

See more details on using hashes here.

File details

Details for the file qwik-0.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: qwik-0.2.0-py3-none-any.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 46.9 kB
  • Tags: Python 3
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.12.13

File hashes

Hashes for qwik-0.2.0-py3-none-any.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 97da358eeaa74c18dc593c6c374f294f32522241915b3dc99ac42cefd4d1bb6b
MD5 0dc3985a5c7f4a6236ddda2ca59d270d
BLAKE2b-256 e96747b6f68ef4a7187c37b436291a5d0f5b83f5cb42dd0e8335be655ee38da2

See more details on using hashes here.

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Pingdom Monitoring Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page