ShellTalk brings deterministic text-to-bash

Hacker News

Hi HN! I built a CLI tool called ShellTalk for macOS, Linux, and web (WebAssembly) that maps English text to the corresponding Bash commands. ShellTalk is written in Swift and available under the Apache 2.0 license on GitHub. I was inspired a few weeks ago after reading the Meta-Harness paper and seeing a tool called Hunch that did something similar using the Apple Foundation model. I often forget flag names and orders, but I wanted something that worked consistently. The 3B AFM worked surprisingly well with Hunch, but it felt slow and sometimes slight changes in what I wrote would result in very different outputs. ShellTalk attempts to match the input with an intent category (Git, File I/O, etc), then a template, and finally to slot-fill and adapt to the specific command version and BSD vs GNU syntax. It has a few other tricks including using NSSpellChecker on macOS to auto-correct certain typos, and scores the output on safety (i.e. is the action destructive or non-reversible). It's clearly far from perfect, but has very tight testing and validation cycles compared to using an LLM, is very portable, and might eventually work in other languages or environments like Windows. I'm curious to hear what others think.

Visit product View on Hacker NewsApr 22, 2026

Share card

Actual performance

9points

Made the leaderboard

Launch Intel predictions

Analyze your own launch →

Indie HackersFits the IH revenue-focused audience · Strong signals: including · Missing: supports, reddit linkedin, podcasting

87%87% predicted probability of success on Indie Hackers, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

best fitHighest predicted score across all platforms for this description.

Product HuntOn track for Day 1 leaderboard · Strong signals: mac, macos, model · Missing: agents, agent, cursor

81%81% predicted probability of success on Product Hunt, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Hacker NewsStrong engagement from HN community · Strong signals: io, including · Missing: https docs, excited, just released

61%61% predicted probability of success on Hacker News, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

nativeThis product was originally launched on this platform.

AppSumoMay struggle as an AppSumo deal · Missing: plus, platform, intuitive

35%35% predicted probability of success on AppSumo, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

TrustMRRLess likely to generate early MRR · Missing: mobile apps, ios, personal

33%33% predicted probability of success on TrustMRR, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Acquire.comPre-revenue stage for this audience · Missing: arr, mrr, revenue

13%13% predicted probability of success on Acquire.com, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

BetaListMay not resonate with beta-testers · Missing: web3, chat, crypto

0%0% predicted probability of success on BetaList, based on ML models trained on real launch data.

Correct prediction on native model

Similar products

Columnq brings OLAP to Unix pipes54%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Columnq brings OLAP to Unix pipes

Hacker News32

Ravr brings Ramda-style parameter placeholders to vavr/java31%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Ravr brings Ramda-style parameter placeholders to vavr/java

Hacker News2

Aigency53%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Aigency is an advanced platform that brings together multidi

Indie Hackersvertical-ai

Start9 brings the retrogaming universe to everyone, everywhere43%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Start9 brings the retrogaming universe to everyone, everywhere

Hacker News1

MimicPhoto – AI That Brings Your Photos to Life25%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

MimicPhoto – AI That Brings Your Photos to Life

Hacker News2

Kvrocks(Redis On Rocksdb) has released 2.0 brings some new features56%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Kvrocks(Redis On Rocksdb) has released 2.0 brings some new features

Hacker News1

Forkable – A.I. that chooses your next lunch. Then brings it to you43%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Forkable – A.I. that chooses your next lunch. Then brings it to you

Hacker News8

Prestige Hoskote60%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Prestige Hoskote brings modern township living

Indie Hackerscommitment-side-project

ZombieRun – retro platformer that brings back sexy to local co-op55%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

ZombieRun – retro platformer that brings back sexy to local co-op

Hacker News5

Try Storied44%Launch Intel prediction score: how likely this product is to succeed on its source platform, based on its name, tagline, and description.

Storied brings you the power of storytelling

Indie Hackers

Browse all products Analyze your launch