# idank/explainshell

match command-line arguments to their help text

Repository: https://github.com/idank/explainshell
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/explainshell
Language: Python
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-08-26T12:51:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 79/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 41, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4751, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 181, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: prerelease_only
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 14211, forks 847 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:06.434346+00:00)

## What it is
explainshell is a tool with a web interface that parses manpages, extracts their options, and explains arbitrary shell command lines by matching each argument to the relevant help text. It uses bashlex to parse commands into an AST, stores processed manpages in SQLite, and serves explanations via Flask.

## Use cases
- explain what a shell command does
- understand unfamiliar command-line flags
- look up what options a command supports
- self-host a command-line explanation service
- learn shell commands interactively

## When to choose
- you need to understand or document complex shell commands
- you want a self-hosted explainshell.com instance
- you're building tooling that maps CLI arguments to manpage help text

## When to avoid
- you need general documentation search beyond manpages
- you need a library API for embedding in other apps rather than a web service

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: nlp, parser, search-engine, web-framework
- domain: developer-tools, education
- platform: python, self-hosted
- tags: manpages, shell-commands, command-explanation, flask, sqlite, bashlex, command-line, natural-language-processing, web-server, linux

## Member repositories
- idank/explainshell (main) score 79

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:06.434346+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:12:43.998552+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/idank/explainshell (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:06.434346+00:00, sha fed56f994494)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.