Tools: I replaced the `man` command with a Python TUI — and it's actually useful

What it looks like ## What it does differently ## Features I'm actually proud of ## ⚡ Quick-Win Gallery ## 🤖 AI Explanations (via Groq) ## 📂 Interactive Sidebar ## 🎨 Theming ## Install it in one line ## The stack ## What's next ## Try it out We've all been there. You're deep in a terminal session, you forget a flag, so you type man grep — and you're greeted by this: A wall of monospaced text. No color. No structure. No examples surfaced upfront. So I built SmartMan CLI — a drop-in, interactive replacement for man that actually respects your eyes and your time. The most painful thing about man pages is that the useful examples are always buried at the bottom. SmartMan surfaces the most common usage patterns as interactive cards right at the top of every page. No scrolling, no grep-ing through the man page to find what you need. Staring at a complex flag description and still confused? Run: It hits the Groq API (sub-second response, free tier available) and gives you a plain-English summary of what the command actually does — no more decoding formal specification language at 2am. Jump between NAME, SYNOPSIS, DESCRIPTION, OPTIONS, and EXAMPLES instantly using keyboard shortcuts: Built on YAML-based themes, so you can match your exact terminal aesthetic: Or via pipx if you prefer: Then, to make it your permanent default man command, add this to your .bashrc or .zshrc: Now every time you type man <command>, you get the full SmartMan experience automatically. The full source code is on GitHub: 👉 github.com/ambaskaryash/smartman-cli If this saves you even a few seconds of squinting at man pages, a ⭐ on the repo would mean a lot — it helps other Linux users discover it too. Contributions are very welcome, especially new themes. Adding one is as simple as dropping a YAML file into smartman/themes/. What's the most annoying thing about the default man command for you? Drop it in the comments — I'm actively looking for what to build next. 👇 Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse CODE_BLOCK: GREP(1) General Commands Manual GREP(1) NAME grep, egrep, fgrep, rgrep - print lines that match patterns ... Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: GREP(1) General Commands Manual GREP(1) NAME grep, egrep, fgrep, rgrep - print lines that match patterns ... CODE_BLOCK: GREP(1) General Commands Manual GREP(1) NAME grep, egrep, fgrep, rgrep - print lines that match patterns ... CODE_BLOCK: smartman --explain awk Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: smartman --explain awk CODE_BLOCK: smartman --explain awk CODE_BLOCK: smartman --theme dracula grep Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: smartman --theme dracula grep CODE_BLOCK: smartman --theme dracula grep COMMAND_BLOCK: curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ambaskaryash/smartman-cli/main/install.sh | bash Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode COMMAND_BLOCK: curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ambaskaryash/smartman-cli/main/install.sh | bash COMMAND_BLOCK: curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ambaskaryash/smartman-cli/main/install.sh | bash COMMAND_BLOCK: pipx install smartman Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode COMMAND_BLOCK: pipx install smartman COMMAND_BLOCK: pipx install smartman CODE_BLOCK: alias man='smartman' Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode CODE_BLOCK: alias man='smartman' CODE_BLOCK: alias man='smartman' - Default — Modern dark blue - Dracula — Classic dev - Catppuccin — Pastel mocha - Nord — Cool-toned frost - Monokai — High-contrast vibrant - Textual — The TUI framework that makes all the interactive UI possible. If you haven't tried it yet, it's genuinely impressive what you can build in pure Python. - Rich — Powers the syntax highlighting and styled rendering. - Groq API — For the AI explanations. Chosen specifically for its near-zero latency — it doesn't feel like waiting for an AI. - Typer — Clean CLI interface with zero boilerplate. - [ ] Fuzzy search across all installed man pages - [ ] Bookmarking frequently-used man pages - [ ] --tldr mode (shorter, community-sourced summaries) - [ ] Export to PDF