try-rs

中文文档请见 docs/README_CN.md。

try-rs is a Rust port of the popular try tool. It is a command-line utility designed to help you easily manage and navigate temporary "sandbox" directories for experiments, keeping your main projects clean.

It features a fast TUI, fuzzy searching, Git integration, and multi-workspace management.

Features

• ⚡ Fast TUI: Interactive interface built with crossterm.
• 🔍 Fuzzy Search: Quickly find existing experiments or create new ones.
• 📅 Date Suffix: Directory names are automatically suffixed with the date (e.g., my-experiment-2025-12-16), so experiments stay sorted and easy to tell apart over time.
• 🌐 Proxy Support: Clone through a proxy tool (e.g. proxychains) via the --proxy option or the TRY_PROXY environment variable — handy when GitHub is slow or blocked.
• 📦 Git Integration: Easily clone repos into isolated, dated directories.
• 🗂️ Workspace Management: Switch between different root directories (workspaces) using try set, with current directory prioritized.
• 🪟 Cross-Platform: Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. The shell is auto-detected and the right script (Bash/Zsh or PowerShell) is emitted automatically.

Installation

Prerequisites

You need Rust and Cargo installed on your system.

Build

git clone <this-repo-url>
cd try-rs
cargo build --release

The binary will be located at ./target/release/try.

Shell Integration (Required)

Since try needs to change your shell's current directory (cd), it cannot work as a standalone binary alone. You must configure your shell to wrap it.

Bash / Zsh (Linux, macOS, Git Bash)

Add the following to your shell configuration file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc):

# Replace /path/to/try-rs with the actual path to your compiled binary
eval "$(/path/to/try-rs/target/release/try init ~/experiments)"

• ~/experiments is the default directory where your "tries" will be stored. You can change this to any path you prefer.

After adding this, restart your terminal or run source ~/.zshrc.

Windows (PowerShell 5.1+ / PowerShell 7)

try emits PowerShell-native scripts on Windows. Add the following to your PowerShell profile ($PROFILE):

# Replace the path with the actual path to your compiled try.exe
& 'C:\path\to\try-rs\target\release\try.exe' init --shell powershell 'C:\Users\you\experiments' | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Reload with . $PROFILE (or restart the terminal). Windows Terminal is recommended for the best TUI experience.

Out-String is required: the init output is multi-line, and without it PowerShell passes a string array to Invoke-Expression, which fails with "Cannot convert 'System.Object[]' to the type 'System.String'". Pinning --shell powershell also avoids mis-detection when PowerShell is launched from a parent shell that exports $SHELL (e.g. Git Bash).

The PowerShell command is tr, not try. try is a reserved keyword in PowerShell (try { } catch { }), so the wrapper cannot be named try — typing try would be parsed as a try{} statement and never reach the tool. Use tr instead (e.g. tr, tr my-idea, tr clone <url>). To pick a different name, pass --name <cmd> to init.

The shell is auto-detected. To force a specific shell, pass --shell bash or --shell powershell to init. The init wrapper exports TRY_SHELL, so all subsequent invocations emit scripts for the correct shell automatically.

Usage

Basic Navigation

Simply type try to open the interactive selector:

try

• Type to filter directories.
• Up/Down to navigate.
• Enter to switch to the selected directory.
• Delete to mark a directory for deletion (Batch delete supported).
• Esc to cancel.

Creating New Experiments

Type a name that doesn't exist, and select "Create new":

try my-new-idea

This will create ~/experiments/my-new-idea-YYYY-MM-DD and cd into it.

Git Cloning

Clone a repository into a fresh, dated directory:

try clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

This creates repo-YYYY-MM-DD and clones the source into it.

Proxy Support: If you need to use a proxy tool (like proxychains or similar) for cloning:

# Use --proxy option
try clone https://github.com/user/repo.git --proxy proxychains

# Or set TRY_PROXY environment variable
export TRY_PROXY=proxychains
try clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

The CLI option takes precedence over the environment variable.

Workspace Management

try-rs allows you to manage multiple root locations (workspaces) for your experiments.

1. Add a new workspace: Initialize a new path. This switches your current session to this path and saves it to history.

   # This sets the current TRY_PATH and adds it to history
   try init ~/other/projects

2. Switch workspaces: Use set to choose from your previously used workspaces.

   try set

   This opens a TUI listing your workspace history, with the current working directory prioritized at the top. Selecting a workspace will:

   • Update your TRY_PATH environment variable
   • Change to the selected directory (cd)
   • Save it to your workspace history

Configuration

• History: Workspace history is stored in ~/.config/try/workspaces (Linux/macOS) or %USERPROFILE%\.config\try\workspaces (Windows).
• Environment: The tool relies on the TRY_PATH environment variable, which is managed by the shell wrapper.

License

MIT