Ideas from tobi/try: fuzzy TUI picker, auto-dated scratch dirs, shell integration, graduate-to-project

[solrevdev]

Background

tobi/try (try-cli on RubyGems, ~3.5k★) is a single-file Ruby CLI tagline "fresh directories for every vibe". It solves a slightly different problem than seedfolder today — instead of scaffolding dotfiles into a named folder, it manages a single "scratch" directory full of dated experiment folders with a fuzzy TUI, shell integration, and lifecycle commands (rename, delete, "graduate" to a real project).

There is real overlap with seedfolder and seedfolder-marketplace: both are about getting you into a ready-to-code folder fast. Some of try's UX could plug into seedfolder and arguably reshape its positioning from "copy dotfiles once" to "manage and re-enter your scaffolded folders over time".

This issue catalogues the ideas worth porting, with concrete .NET/C# implementation notes, for a feature branch (suggested: feature/try-inspired-ux).

Features from try worth integrating

1. Fuzzy TUI picker (seedfolder pick / default when no args)

Interactive list of existing seeded folders under a configurable root (e.g. ~/src/seeds or reuse SEEDFOLDER_PATH). Type to filter with fuzzy matching; ↑/↓ to select; Enter to output the chosen path for the shell wrapper to cd into.

• NuGet: Spectre.Console for the layout + live rendering; FuzzySharp (FuzzyWuzzy port) or a hand-rolled subsequence scorer for matching.
• How: Render a live Layout / Table bound to the filtered+scored list; read keys via Console.ReadKey(intercept: true). Score = recency (mtime) + date-prefix bonus + fuzzy score — mirror try.rb's base_score = 3.0 / sqrt(hours_since_access + 1) and +2.0 bonus for YYYY-MM-DD- prefix.

2. Auto-dated directory names

New folders get a YYYY-MM-DD- prefix automatically (2026-04-22-redis-experiment). Keeps scratch dirs chronologically sortable.

• How: In Program.cs folder-creation path, prepend DateTime.Today.ToString(\"yyyy-MM-dd\") when a --dated / -d flag is set, or when the folder lives under the scratch root. Keep current behaviour as default to avoid breaking existing users.

3. Recency-aware ranking

"Recently used stuff bubbles to the top." Uses File.stat.mtime — no external state file needed.

• How: Directory.GetLastWriteTime(path) per entry, combined into the scorer above. Spectre's rendering handles the rest.

4. Shell integration (seedfolder init)

A .NET global tool can't change its parent shell's CWD. try solves this with eval \"$(try init)\", which defines a shell function that runs the binary, captures the selected path on stdout, and cds into it.

• How: New seedfolder init [--shell bash|zsh|fish|pwsh] command that prints the shim to stdout:

  seedfolder() {
    local dir
    dir=\"$(command seedfolder-bin \"$@\")\" && [ -n \"$dir\" ] && cd \"$dir\"
  }

• Emit equivalents for Fish (function seedfolder ... end) and PowerShell. Model on zoxide's init — it's the cleanest .NET-adjacent prior art.
• Important: the current tool writes UI to stdout via Colorful.Console. To support this pattern, render UI to stderr and reserve stdout for the path. Spectre.Console can be configured with AnsiConsole.Create(new AnsiConsoleSettings { Out = new AnsiConsoleOutput(Console.Error) }).

5. "Graduate" / ascend (promote scratch → real project)

Ctrl-G in try's TUI moves/renames a dated scratch dir into a proper projects directory, stripping the date prefix. Natural next step after seedfolder scaffolds something worth keeping.

• How: seedfolder graduate <name> [--to <path>], with SEEDFOLDER_PROJECTS env var as default target (matching TRY_PROJECTS). Uses Directory.Move. In the TUI, bind Ctrl-G to the same action.

6. Rename + batch delete in TUI

Ctrl-R rename, Ctrl-D toggle-mark then confirm-delete. Small but high-value for a scratch-dir manager.

• How: Just Directory.Move / Directory.Delete(path, recursive: true). Add a Spectre ConfirmationPrompt before destructive ops.

7. Clone-from-URL shorthand

try https://github.com/user/repo.git clones the repo under the scratch root and drops you in.

• NuGet: LibGit2Sharp for in-process clone, or just Process.Start(\"git\", \"clone ...\") to keep the tool tiny and avoid native deps (libgit2 adds ~10MB and has known shipping pain on ARM macOS).
• Recommend shelling out to git; fall back with a helpful message if git isn't on PATH.

8. Configurable scratch root

TRY_PATH → SEEDFOLDER_PATH env var, with sensible default (~/src/seeds or XDG-ish ~/.local/share/seedfolder).

• How: Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable + Environment.GetFolderPath(SpecialFolder.UserProfile). Create the dir on first run.

9. Shorter names-win / subsequence fuzzy matching

try's scorer rewards short names and subsequence matches (rds → redis-server, connpool → connection-pool).

• How: Implement a simple subsequence scorer (for each query char, find next match index; penalize gaps; bonus for consecutive matches and word-boundary matches). Or use FuzzySharp's WeightedRatio/TokenSetRatio. Hand-rolling is ~60 lines and matches try.rb's behaviour more faithfully.

10. Alternate-screen TUI

try uses the alt-screen buffer (ANSI \\e[?1049h/l) so quitting restores your terminal. Spectre's LiveDisplay doesn't do this by default; emit the alt-screen escape sequences manually around the interactive session.

Suggested rollout on a feature branch

Suggested branch: feature/try-inspired-ux. Order picked so each step is usable on its own.

1. Extract current Program.cs logic into small classes (FolderSeeder, TemplateWriter) — no behaviour change, just makes the additions tractable. Keep McMaster.Extensions.CommandLineUtils or migrate to System.CommandLine (latter is now stable and the direction Microsoft is pushing).
2. Add Spectre.Console + move all UX output there (currently split between Colorful.Console and Figgle). Route UI to stderr.
3. Add SEEDFOLDER_PATH env var + --dated flag for auto-dated folders.
4. Add seedfolder list / seedfolder pick with fuzzy TUI (FuzzySharp or custom scorer).
5. Add seedfolder init shell-shim emitter; document the eval \"$(seedfolder init)\" pattern in README.
6. Add seedfolder graduate + TUI rename/delete.
7. Add clone-URL handling (seedfolder clone <url>).

Positioning / marketplace angle

seedfolder today = "scaffold one folder with my dotfiles". Post-try-inspiration it could be "scaffold, find, and re-enter your project folders — with your templates". That also sets up seedfolder-marketplace nicely: templates from the marketplace become the "seed" step, and the new TUI becomes the persistent "navigator" over everything you've seeded. Worth deciding up front whether this should stay in seedfolder or be a sibling tool (seednav?) that reads the same config — the one-binary story is simpler.

References

• tobi/try: https://github.com/tobi/try
• try.rb source: https://github.com/tobi/try/blob/main/try.rb
• zoxide init pattern (prior art for shell shim from a binary): https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide
• Spectre.Console: https://spectreconsole.net/
• FuzzySharp: https://github.com/JakeBayer/FuzzySharp
• LibGit2Sharp: https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2sharp