# gleitz/howdoi

instant coding answers via the command line

Repository: https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/howdoi
Homepage: http://blog.gleitzman.com/post/43330157197/howdoi-instant-coding-answers-via-the-command-line
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-04-15T04:08:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 77, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5032, "days_push": 140, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 10839, forks 862 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:44.474105+00:00)

## What it is
howdoi is a command-line tool that fetches instant coding answers from the web (primarily Stack Overflow) so you can get code snippets without opening a browser. It is written in Python, installable via pip or brew, and MIT-licensed.

## Use cases
- get a code snippet for formatting a date in bash without leaving the terminal
- look up how to print a stack trace in python from the command line
- find the tar command to create an archive quickly
- search stack overflow answers directly from the console
- avoid opening a browser while coding to look up syntax

## When to choose
- you want quick, copy-pasteable code answers while staying in the terminal
- you frequently look up small syntax or command-line questions
- you want a lightweight pip-installable helper with no browser overhead

## When to avoid
- you need in-depth explanations, tutorials, or documentation rather than snippets
- you need answers offline or without web access
- you need an IDE-integrated assistant or AI-powered code completion

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: search-engine, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: cli, python, cross-platform, windows
- tags: coding-answers, stack-overflow, terminal, quick-help, pypi, command-line, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- gleitz/howdoi (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.474105+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 2026-08-29T17:17:30.385872+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.474105+00:00, sha e208d4042822)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/howdoi/json (fetched 2026-08-29T08:16:32.776755+00:00, sha 463f7ed9cbd2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.