Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Notational `ls` - Never get lost in code again (hour long hack)

Hey folks, I just wanted to share a quick script I threw together called notational ls. One of the big problems of any code base (or any filesystem) is that it's hard to tell what's what - folder and file names often trade brevity for clarity. So I thought about a version of `ls` that works like this: > nls web: Where python web server files are stored ad_hoc: One time scripts ios: Our IOS code images Adding descriptions is really easy too: > nls images Images SHARED between both ios and web web: Where python web server files are stored ad_hoc: One time scripts ios: Our IOS code…

Notational `ls` is a command-line tool that extends the standard `ls` command to display descriptions alongside directories and files. Built in Python, it allows developers to add clarifying notes to folders and files… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Notational `ls` - Never get lost in code again (hour long hack) launched in 2011; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1
I made an ls alternative for my personal use▲197
blazing fast `ls` replacement with superpowers. Contribute to chaqchase/lla development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
2AP
A plain-text file format for todos and check lists▲452
After having cycled through various CLI-based todo apps, I started to realise that I actually don’t need a tool at all for managing my todos. Most of the time, my use cases are quite simple, like viewing my todo items, checking them off, or adding a new one. Rather than having to memorise CLI commands for these interactions (which I’m not super good at), I figured that it’s easier for me to use my text editor directly, and have an editor plugin help me with the visual structure and some convenience functionality. So, kind-of similar to Emacs Org Mode, but without having to use Emacs. I…
2022 · its alternatives →
3
tere – A Faster Alternative to cd+ls▲378
Hi HN! I wrote a small program to browse folders in the terminal. The main inspiration was type-ahead search in GUI file managers. There exist several programs that are similar (see the listing in the README), but none of them do it quite the way I like, and often they have a very complex UI and a ton of features. I tried to make something that is obvious how to use and gets out of your way. (I also wanted an excuse to learn Rust.) Let me know what you think!
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
4EA
Exa, a replacement for ls written in Rust▲132
2015 · bsago.me · its alternatives →
5
liblorgnette – a dlsym for alien processes on OS X▲41
Interprocess dlsym() for OS X & iOS. Contribute to rodionovd/liblorgnette development by creating an account on GitHub.
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
6
Elles – A nicer /bin/ls▲57
A nicer /bin/ls. Contribute to arp242/elles development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
7
Using LLMs and Embeddings to classify application errors▲65
Hi Hacker News! We’re Vadim and Chris from Highlight.io [1]. We do web app monitoring and are working on using LLMs/embeddings to add new functionality to our error monitoring product. Given that there’s a lot of founders/engineers using LLMs in their products, we figured we’d share how we built the new functionality, their impact on our workflows, and how you can try it out. Our goal was to build two features: (1) tagging errors (e.g. deeming an error as “authentication error” or a “database error”); and (2) grouping similar errors together (e.g. two errors that have a different…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
8AC
A command-line flat-file note management app in Python 3▲20
2018 · hawth.bitbucket.io · its alternatives →
9
Nav – A terminal navigator for interactive `ls` workflows▲75
Hi Everyone, I built a tool for interactive navigation in the terminal that is intended to replace the all-too-familiar cycle of `ls` to view a directory, followed by `cd`, then `ls`, and repeat. nav is a terminal filesystem explorer built for interactive `ls` workflows. The key features I wanted to enable are interactivity and search without feeling like I'm using anything other than `ls`. nav supports common `ls` options/flags, as well as tab completion, and might expand its support for less common options in the future. These options exist as both CLI flags and interactive toggles.…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
10DE
Dump entire Git repos into a single file for LLM prompts▲57
Hey! I wanted to share a tool I've been working on. It's still very early and a work in progress, but I've found it incredibly helpful when working with Claude and OpenAI's models. What it does: I created a Python script that dumps your entire Git repository into a single file. This makes it much easier to use with Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. Key Features: - Respects .gitignore patterns - Generates a tree-like directory structure - Includes file contents for all non-excluded files - Customizable file type filtering Why I find it useful for…
2024 · its alternatives →
11
CodeRLM – Tree-sitter-backed code indexing for LLM agents▲81
I've been building a tool that changes how LLM coding agents explore codebases, and I wanted to share it along with some early observations. Typically claude code globs directories, greps for patterns, and reads files with minimal guidance. It works in kind of the same way you'd learn to navigate a city by walking every street. You'll eventually build a mental map, but claude never does - at least not any that persists across different contexts. The Recursive Language Models paper from Zhang, Kraska, and Khattab at MIT CSAIL introduced a cleaner framing. Instead of cramming everything into…
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
12
Fallinorg - Offline Mac app that organizes files by meaning▲88
Hi HN, I made Fallinorg, a local macOS app that organizes files by their meaning, not just their name or type. Problem: My Downloads and Desktop folders kept filling up with cryptically named, duplicate, or unrelated files. Over time, cleaning up and finding the right file became a pain. Solution: Fallinorg uses Sentence Transformers (SBERT) to understand the content and context of files, then automatically groups them. It runs fully offline, so you can safely classify sensitive files (finance, medical, personal, etc.). On Apple Silicon, it parses, tokenizes, and categorizes a file in about…
2025 · fallinorg.com · its alternatives →
13
18KB ls alternative in no_std rust and Libc▲23
crates.io serves as a central registry for sharing crates, which are packages or libraries written in Rust that you can use to enhance your projects
Jul 2026 · crates.io · its alternatives →
14
Notepad.exe – macOS editor for Swift and Python (now Linux runtime)▲41
I recently released version 1.4 of Notepad.exe, my editor built for macOS. The goal of the app is to let you prototype ideas in Swift or Python with minimal setup - write code, hit Run, skip project scaffolding. This release adds support for a Linux runtime/subsystem, so you can write on macOS and execute snippets in a Linux environment. I’d love to hear any feedback or answer any questions: would a tool like this fit your workflow? What friction remains?
2025 · notepadexe.com · its alternatives →
15
Posce, a note-taking toolkit for your command-line▲54
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
16
Runal – A text-based creative coding environment for the terminal▲7
Hello HN! Just wanted to share a small project I've been working for the last few months. It's a tool called Runal, a text-based creative coding environment that runs in the terminal. It works similarly as processing or p5js but it does all the rendering as text. And it can either be scripted with JavaScript or used as a Go package. It's open-source and cross-platform (linux, macOS, windows). It seems to me that text/ascii-art aesthetics are really popular in creative coding communities, so I though it would make sense to create a tool that runs on a platform which can render text only.…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
17
lsf▲6
OpenGrammar is a free, privacy-first browser extension that gives you Grammarly-like writing help everywhere (Gmail, Google Docs, Notion, Reddit, etc.) without sending your data anywhere. Key points: • Core engine runs 100% locally in your browser (rule-based detection of passive voice, repetition, long sentences, readability). No internet needed. • Optional AI power: just paste your own OpenAI/Groq/OpenRouter/Ollama key. You pay only pennies for what you use. Your key never leaves the browser. • Tone rewriting (Formal, Casual, Professional, etc.) with one right-click. •…
2025 · swadhinbiswas.github.io · its alternatives →
18
Lq – Alternative to Ls▲17
Tool for displaying items in directories using different modes - madprops/lq
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
19EP
Enophp – PHP library for the eno notation language▲17
The eno notation language[1] now also has an official PHP library: https://eno-lang.org/php/ It features the same API and featureset as the JavaScript / Python / Ruby libraries, and also comes with the same extensive testsuite that has been growing during implementation of the other libraries, with already well over 90% coverage at the time of release. Happy to hear your feedback and answer any questions! [1] A user-friendly format for file-based content: https://eno-lang.org/
2018 · its alternatives →
20
Lsvine: `tree -L 2` with less empty screen space▲31
`tree -L 2` with less empty screen space. Contribute to autofitcloud/lsvine development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
21
I just open sourced my document/website extractor for Vision-LLMs▲37
Hi HackerNews, Lately, I have seen an explosion in posts offering paid APIs/services to get unstructured data into LLMs (i.e. langchain extract, ragflow, unstructured, unstract, just to name a few) and I have been largely disappointed by them, either because they fail to implement multimodal support, fail to give good context for "really tricky" PDFs / Word docs / Powerpoints, or are just plain difficult to use. In light of all these posts I figured I'd share my solution that has been working smoothly for me and my clients. I put it up on GitHub for free so you can check it…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
22
Code Indexer Loop▲28
This is a project I recently worked on at Definitive. We’re hoping to make it easier to semantically query (changing) source code files. We’d love to see people use it as a building block. If you have any suggestions please leave a comment or open a GitHub issue!
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
23
notesbash – A notes management TUI written in bash▲23
Hello everybody! We (lukeflo and me) have made a little notes management tui written in bash based on fff by Dylan Araps, which we've improved a lot to make it a notes management tui. It uses your editor of choice to edit and create notes, you can fuzzy search your notes and search them by tags you give them by writing them in the markdown yaml or emacs org header. All in all it turned out to be a surprisingly good project that we now want to refine after just releasing v1.0, so any feedback, suggestions or criticism is very welcome!
2024 · codeberg.org · its alternatives →
24
gls, a graphical “ls” for iTerm2▲10
A graphical ls command for iTerm2 with icons. Contribute to rs/gls development by creating an account on GitHub.
2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

Also compare

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →