try-rs

try-rs.org
A blazing fast, Rust-based workspace manager for your temporary experiments.

try-rs is a CLI tool designed to manage the chaos of temporary projects. Instead of cluttering your Desktop or /tmp with test1, new-test, and final-test, try-rs organizes them into date-prefixed directories, offering a robust TUI (Terminal User Interface) to create, navigate, and clean up your experiments.

Features

Installation

Prerequisites

• A shell (Fish, Zsh, Bash, Power Shell or Nushell).
• A Nerd Font installed (required for icons like  and 🦀).

Building from source

git clone [https://github.com/tassiovirginio/try-rs.git](https://github.com/tassiovirginio/try-rs)
cd try-rs
cargo install --path . --bin try-rs

Cargo install try-rs

cargo install try-rs

Install in Archlinux

yay -S try-rs-bin

Ubuntu/Debian (APT Repository)

# Add the repository
echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://tassiovirginio.github.io/try-rs stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/try-rs.list

# Update and install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install try-rs

Ubuntu/Debian (.deb manual)

• Download the latest .deb for your architecture (amd64/arm64) from the Releases page and install it:

# Replace X.Y.Z with the latest version and choose amd64 or arm64
wget https://github.com/tassiovirginio/try-rs/releases/download/vX.Y.Z/try-rs_X.Y.Z-1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./try-rs_X.Y.Z-1_amd64.deb

• Alternatively, browse all assets at: https://github.com/tassiovirginio/try-rs/releases

Windows (Releases)

• Download the Windows build from the Releases downloads: https://github.com/tassiovirginio/try-rs/releases/download/
• Unzip or place the binary somewhere on your PATH (e.g., add the folder to the System Environment Path) so you can run try-rs from any terminal (PowerShell, Command Prompt).

Nix Install (flakes)

nix profile install github:tassiovirginio/try-rs

Automatic Setup

On the first run, try-rs will attempt to detect your shell and ask if you want to automatically configure the shell integration.

Configuration

1. Setup the Shell Integration

Since try-rs needs to change your shell's current directory, it requires a small wrapper function.

• Fish Shell (Recommended)

try-rs --setup fish

(Optional) Create an abbreviation:

abbr --add try try-rs

• Zsh

try-rs --setup zsh

• Bash

try-rs --setup bash

• Power-shell

try-rs --setup power-shell

• Nushell

try-rs --setup nu-shell

2. Config File

The configuration file is stored in a platform-specific directory:

By default, experiments are stored in ~/work/tries. You can customize the path, choose a theme, and configure the editor. To change this, create config.toml in the directory shown above:

# config.toml
tries_path = "~/Development/playground"
editor = "code" # Optional: code, nvim, hx, etc.

# Theme configuration (choose one of the available themes)
theme = "Catppuccin Mocha"

Available Themes:

You can use any of these theme names in your configuration:

• "Default"
• "Catppuccin Mocha"
• "Catppuccin Macchiato"
• "Dracula"
• "JetBrains Darcula"
• "Gruvbox Dark"
• "Nord"
• "Tokyo Night"
• "One Dark Pro"
• "Everforest"
• "SynthWave '84"
• "OLED True Black"
• "Silver Gray"
• "Black & White"
• "Matrix"
• "Tron"

Custom Colors (Optional):

If you want to create a fully custom theme, you can define individual colors instead of using the theme option:

# config.toml
tries_path = "~/Development/playground"
editor = "code"

[colors]
# UI Colors
title_try = "Magenta"
title_rs = "White"
search_title = "Green"
search_border = "Gray"
folder_title = "Yellow"
folder_border = "Gray"
disk_title = "Orange"
disk_border = "Gray"
preview_title = "Blue"
preview_border = "Gray"
legends_title = "Purple"
legends_border = "Gray"
list_date = "Blue"
list_highlight_bg = "Magenta"
list_highlight_fg = "Black"
helpers_colors = "DarkGray"
status_message = "Yellow"
popup_bg = "DarkGray"
popup_text = "LightRed"

# Icons Colors
icon_rust = "Red"
icon_maven = "Orange"
icon_flutter = "Cyan"
icon_go = "Cyan"
icon_python = "Yellow"
icon_mise = "Orange"
icon_worktree = "Green"
icon_worktree_lock = "Gray"
icon_gitmodules = "Purple"
icon_git = "Red"
icon_folder = "Yellow"
icon_file = "Gray"

Available Color Names:

You can use the following color names in your custom color configuration:

• Basic colors: Black, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Magenta, Cyan, Gray, DarkGray, LightRed, LightGreen, LightYellow, LightBlue, LightMagenta, LightCyan, White
• RGB colors: You can also use RGB values like "#FF5733" or as a table: { r = 255, g = 87, b = 51 }

3. Environment Variables

You can also configure try-rs using environment variables:

Usage

Simply type try-rs (or your alias) in your terminal.

Key Bindings

Theme Selector Key Bindings

Themes

You can switch between themes at runtime by pressing Ctrl+T. The following themes are available:

• Default
• Catppuccin Mocha
• Catppuccin Macchiato
• Dracula
• JetBrains Darcula
• Gruvbox Dark
• Nord
• Tokyo Night
• One Dark Pro
• Everforest
• SynthWave '84
• OLED True Black
• Silver Gray
• Black & White
• Matrix
• Tron

You can also define a custom theme in your config.toml.

CLI Commands

You can also bypass the UI:

Inspiration

This project is a Rust port and re-imagination of the excellent try tool by Tobi Lütke.

While the original is a lightweight Ruby script, try-rs aims to bring the same philosophy, "Your experiments deserve a home", but with the performance, type safety, and modern TUI capabilities (using Ratatui) of the Rust ecosystem.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

📄 License MIT