This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Pheem49
As developers, we live in the terminal. And for me, living in the terminal is a choice for two things: speed and coolness.
But let's be honest, typing cd ../../../some/deep/workspace over and over again is neither fast nor cool. You either have to remember the exact path or frantically spam the TAB key.
That's why I built Proton-T — a smarter, faster cd alternative that actually learns your workflow.
What is Proton-T?
Proton-T allows you to "jump" to your most frequently used directories in just a few keystrokes. It works seamlessly across all major shells (Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell) and uses a smart Frecency + Intent matching algorithm to understand exactly where you want to go.
Forget about absolute paths. Just type what you remember.
✨ How it works (The Magic)
Proton-T doesn't just do dumb string matching. It calculates intents:
- 🧠 Frecency Engine: It balances frequency (how often you visit) and recency (how recently you visited). It ages gracefully, so your active projects are always prioritized over that one folder you opened 6 months ago.
- 🎯 Intent Engine: You can literally speak to your terminal. Typing
t recent projectcomputes "What was that project I touched yesterday?" and instantly jumps there. - 📂 Project Awareness: It automatically detects workspaces (looking for
package.json,Cargo.toml,.git, etc.) and gives them a 1.2x algorithm boost! - 🔍 Smart Fallback: Never visited a folder before? Proton-T will scan your common fallback roots (like
~/Documentsor~/Downloads) on the fly to find it.
Let's see it in action
Proton-T uses the t command to jump, and the ti command for an interactive menu.
# Jump to the best match for 'foo'
t foo
# Add multiple keywords to narrow it down
t foo bar
# Use intent keywords to jump to exactly what you need
t recent project
# Go back to the previous directory
t -
Let me know what you think!
If you're a terminal power user who loves fast CLI tools, give Proton-T a try. I'd love to hear your feedback, feature requests, or see your PRs!
Check out the source code and documentation here:
👉 GitHub: https://github.com/Pheem49/Proton-T
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Pheem49
Pheem49 | Sciencx (2026-05-13T03:32:00+00:00) Tired of typing `cd`? I built a Proton-T is a smarter cd command, blazing-fast directory jumper in Rust. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2026/05/13/tired-of-typing-cd-i-built-a-proton-t-is-a-smarter-cd-command-blazing-fast-directory-jumper-in-rust/
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