Show HN: Shellock, a real-time CLI flag explainer for fish shell

Summary

Shellock Real-time CLI flag explainer for fish shell. Shows flag descriptions as you type commands. Demo $ tree -L 2 -a -C -L Max display depth of the directory tree. -a All files are printed... -C Turn colorization on always... Installation # Clone or download to ~/Downloads/shellock cd ~/Downloads/shellock fish install.fish Usage After installation, explanations appear automatically as you type: Type any command with flags (e.g., ls -la ) ) Flag explanations appear below the prompt Press Enter to execute (clears explanations) to execute (clears explanations) Press Ctrl+C to cancel (clears explanations) to cancel (clears explanations) Press Ctrl+H for manual help on current command How It Works Command Parsing: Extracts command name and flags from your input Flag Lookup: Searches --help output and man pages for descriptions Caching: Caches results in ~/.cache/shellock/ for fast subsequent lookups Display: Renders explanations below your prompt using ANSI escape codes CLI Tool You can also use shellock directly: # Explain flags in a command ./shellock.py explain " git commit -am 'message' " # Look up a specific flag ./shellock.py lookup git -m --subcommand commit # Parse command structure (JSON output) ./shellock.py parse " rsync -avz src/ dest/ " # Clear cache ./shellock.py clear-cache Supported Formats Shellock parses various man page formats: GNU style : -x, --long-option with description on next line : with description on next line BSD style : -x Description on same line : Multiple flags : -R, -r, --recursive : Single-dash long flags : -name pattern (find, java style) : (find, java style) Tree style: -L level with description below Known Limitations Some commands with unusual man page formats may not parse correctly Commands that open interactive help (like git commit --help opening a pager) require man page fallback opening a pager) require man page fallback Combined short flags like -rf are split into individual flags Files ~/Downloads/shellock/ ├── shellock.p...