CellShell

A project made to annoy both TUI and GUI lovers - CLI in the form of excel

What is this?

CellShell is a WPF application that looks exactly like Excel but is, in fact, a shell. Type commands into column A, get output in column B. You can even pretend to be using excel while doing what you truly loive, using a cli.

Every command is wrapped in the only formula that matters: =EXEC("your command here").

Features

• Looks like Excel — Is it a feature? Debatable
• Is a terminal — Type any shell command. ping, curl, git, dotnet, etc.
• Live streaming output
• Concurrent execution — Run multiple commands at once. Each row is independent.
• Expand output — Double-click any cell to see the full output in a scrollable overlay. Running commands auto-scroll.
• Shell toggle — Click cmd ▾ in the status bar to switch between cmd.exe and PowerShell. Formula bar shows =EXEC() or =EXEC.PS().
• Ctrl+C — Kill the active row's process. Like a real terminal, except it looks like you're editing a spreadsheet.
• Resizable columns and rows — Drag to resize, just like the real thing. Double-click a cell to auto-expand.
• The menus work — They just don't do what you'd expect. Try Help > Clippy.

Requirements

• Windows 10/11

Getting Started

Grab CellShell.exe from the latest release and run it. No install needed.

Build from source

Requires .NET 8 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/DHuryn/CellShell.git
cd CellShell
dotnet run

Then type a command in cell A1 and press Enter. Pretend you're working on whatever it is people do in excel.

Usage

Action	How
Run a command	Type in column A, press Enter
View full output	Double-click the output cell
Kill a process	Select the row, press Ctrl+C
Navigate rows	Click any row to select it
Resize columns	Drag column header borders
Switch shell	Click cmd ▾ / pwsh ▾ in status bar
Change text size	View > Text Size +/-

Debug mode

dotnet run -- --debug

Writes a log to cellshell-debug.log in the output directory.

Project Structure

CellShell/
  Core/
    CellData.cs          # Row state: command, output, status, process handle
    CommandExecutor.cs   # Shell execution with streaming output
    SpreadsheetModel.cs  # Grid logic, formatting, no WPF dependencies
  MainWindow.xaml.cs     # The disguise: canvas rendering, animations, overlays
  App.xaml.cs            # Startup, console attachment, graceful shutdown
  Tests/                 # xUnit tests for CommandExecutor and SpreadsheetModel

FAQ

Q: Why? A: I saw a really cool TUI project and got inspired to make a really bad one. Its not even a TUI anymore, to be more excel-like! Q: Does it actually do spreadsheet things? A: No. Could it? Probably.

Q: Can I save my work? A: No. It's a terminal. Just scroll up.