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Your experiments deserve a home. 🏠

For everyone who constantly creates new projects for little experiments, a one-file Ruby script to quickly manage and navigate to keep them somewhat organized

Ever find yourself with 50 directories named test, test2, new-test, actually-working-test, scattered across your filesystem? Or worse, just coding in /tmp and losing everything?

try is here for your beautifully chaotic mind.

View interactive version on asciinema

Instantly navigate through all your experiment directories with:

• Fuzzy search that just works
• Smart sorting - recently used stuff bubbles to the top
• Auto-dating - creates directories like 2025-08-17-redis-experiment
• Zero config - just one Ruby file, no dependencies

gem install try-cli

Then add to your shell:

# Bash/Zsh - add to .zshrc or .bashrc
eval "$(try init)"

# Fish - add to config.fish
eval (try init | string collect)

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tobi/try/refs/heads/main/try.rb > ~/.local/try.rb

# Make "try" executable so it can be run directly
chmod +x ~/.local/try.rb

# Add to your shell (bash/zsh)
echo 'eval "$(ruby ~/.local/try.rb init ~/src/tries)"' >> ~/.zshrc

# for fish shell users
echo 'eval (~/.local/try.rb init ~/src/tries | string collect)' >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish

You're learning Redis. You create /tmp/redis-test. Then ~/Desktop/redis-actually. Then ~/projects/testing-redis-again. Three weeks later you can't find that brilliant connection pooling solution you wrote at 2am.

All your experiments in one place, with instant fuzzy search:

$ try pool
→ 2025-08-14-redis-connection-pool    2h, 18.5
  2025-08-03-thread-pool              3d, 12.1
  2025-07-22-db-pooling               2w, 8.3
  + Create new: pool

Type, arrow down, enter. You're there.

Not just substring matching - it's smart:

• rds matches redis-server
• connpool matches connection-pool
• Recent stuff scores higher
• Shorter names win on equal matches

• Shows how long ago you touched each project
• Recently accessed directories float to the top
• Perfect for "what was I working on yesterday?"

• Clean, minimal interface
• Highlights matches as you type
• Shows scores so you know why things are ranked
• Dark mode by default (because obviously)

• Everything lives in ~/src/tries (configurable via TRY_PATH)
• Auto-prefixes with dates: 2025-08-17-your-idea
• Skip the date prompt if you already typed a name

• Bash/Zsh:

  # default is ~/src/tries
  eval "$(~/.local/try.rb init)"
  # or pick a path
  eval "$(~/.local/try.rb init ~/src/tries)"

• Fish:

  eval (~/.local/try.rb init | string collect)
  # or pick a path
  eval (~/.local/try.rb init ~/src/tries | string collect)

Notes:

• The runtime commands printed by try are shell-neutral (absolute paths, quoted). Only the small wrapper function differs per shell.

try                                          # Browse all experiments
try redis                                    # Jump to redis experiment or create new
try new api                                  # Start with "2025-08-17-new-api"
try . [name]                                   # Create a dated worktree dir for current repo
try ./path/to/repo [name]                      # Use another repo as the worktree source
try worktree dir [name]                        # Same as above, explicit CLI form
try clone https://github.com/user/repo.git  # Clone repo into date-prefixed directory
try https://github.com/user/repo.git        # Shorthand for clone (same as above)
try --help                                   # See all options

Notes on worktrees (try . / try worktree dir):

• With a custom [name], uses that; otherwise uses cwd’s basename. Both are prefixed with today’s date.
• Inside a Git repo: adds a detached HEAD git worktree to the created directory.
• Outside a repo: simply creates the directory and changes into it.

try can automatically clone git repositories into properly named experiment directories:

# Clone with auto-generated directory name
try clone https://github.com/tobi/try.git
# Creates: 2025-08-27-tobi-try

# Clone with custom name
try clone https://github.com/tobi/try.git my-fork
# Creates: my-fork

# Shorthand syntax (no need to type 'clone')
try https://github.com/tobi/try.git
# Creates: 2025-08-27-tobi-try

Supported git URI formats:

• https://github.com/user/repo.git (HTTPS GitHub)
• git@github.com:user/repo.git (SSH GitHub)
• https://gitlab.com/user/repo.git (GitLab)
• git@host.com:user/repo.git (SSH other hosts)

The .git suffix is automatically removed from URLs when generating directory names.

• ↑/↓ or Ctrl-P/N/J/K - Navigate
• Enter - Select or create
• Backspace - Delete character
• Ctrl-D - Delete directory (with confirmation)
• ESC - Cancel
• Just type to filter

Set TRY_PATH to change where experiments are stored:

export TRY_PATH=~/code/sketches

Default: ~/src/tries

nix run github:tobi/try
nix run github:tobi/try -- --help
nix run github:tobi/try init ~/my-tries

{
  inputs.try.url = "github:tobi/try";
  
  imports = [ inputs.try.homeManagerModules.default ];
  
  programs.try = {
    enable = true;
    path = "~/experiments";  # optional, defaults to ~/src/tries
  };
}

brew tap tobi/try https://github.com/tobi/try
brew install try

After installation, add to your shell:

• Bash/Zsh:

  # default is ~/src/tries
  eval "$(try init)"
  # or pick a path
  eval "$(try init ~/src/tries)"

• Fish:

  eval "(try init | string collect)"
  # or pick a path
  eval "(try init ~/src/tries | string collect)"

• One file, no dependencies
• Works on any system with Ruby (macOS has it built-in)
• Fast enough for thousands of directories
• Easy to hack on

Your brain doesn't work in neat folders. You have ideas, you try things, you context-switch like a caffeinated squirrel. This tool embraces that.

Every experiment gets a home. Every home is instantly findable. Your 2am coding sessions are no longer lost to the void.

Q: Why not just use cd and ls? A: Because you have 200 directories and can't remember if you called it test-redis, redis-test, or new-redis-thing.

Q: Why not use fzf? A: fzf is great for files. This is specifically for project directories, with time-awareness and auto-creation built in.

Q: Can I use this for real projects? A: You can, but it's designed for experiments. Real projects deserve real names in real locations.

Q: What if I have thousands of experiments? A: First, welcome to the club. Second, it handles it fine - the scoring algorithm ensures relevant stuff stays on top.

It's one file. If you want to change something, just edit it. Send a PR if you think others would like it too.

MIT - Do whatever you want with it.

Built for developers with ADHD by developers with ADHD.

Your experiments deserve a home. 🏠