Workspace-Specific Commands

While your global command library is perfect for personal, frequently used commands, many tasks are specific to a particular workspace or repository. IntelliShell addresses this with .intellishell files, a simple way to define and share commands that are relevant only to your current working directory.

How It Works

When you trigger a search, IntelliShell automatically looks for a file named .intellishell in the current directory. If it doesn't find one, it searches parent directories until it reaches a .git directory or the filesystem root.

If an .intellishell file is found, its commands are loaded into a temporary, session-only library. These commands are given top priority in search results, appearing above your personal and tldr commands.

Note: You can temporarily disable this feature by setting the INTELLI_SKIP_WORKSPACE=1 environment variable. If this variable is set, IntelliShell will not search for or load any .intellishell file.

Key Behaviors

• Context-Aware: Commands are only available when you are working inside that workspace's directory tree
• Session-Only: Workspace commands are not saved to your permanent database. They are loaded fresh for each session
• Top Priority: Workspace-specific commands always appear at the top of your search results, making them easy to find
• Version Controllable: Since it's a plain text file, you can commit .intellishell to your Git repository to share common workspace commands with your entire team

Use Cases

Workspace-specific commands are ideal for:

• Team Onboarding: New team members can instantly access common build, test, and deployment commands
• Complex Workflows: Document and share multi-step processes, like database migrations or release procedures
• Discoverability: Make workspace-specific scripts and tools easily discoverable without needing to ls through a scripts/ directory, just hit Ctrl+Space to discover them

File Format

The .intellishell file uses the same simple text format as the import and export commands. Any commented line (#) before a command is treated as its description.

Here is an example .intellishell file for a web project:

#!intelli-shell

# Run the development server
npm run dev

# Build the project for production #build
npm run build

# Run all linters and formatters #lint #test
npm run lint && npm run format

# Run end-to-end tests with playwright #test
npx playwright test

Between your personal library and workspace-specific files, you have a powerful system for managing commands. Let's now see how you can back up, restore, and share your personal commands across different machines in Syncing and Sharing.