motd-tool

Tiny CLI that prints a random message of the day in your terminal.

xmotd is built for developers who live in the shell and want something lighter than a dashboard, but more personal than a static prompt.

Why people install it

• xmotd prints a random line from your own local message library
• xmotd init shows one message automatically on the first terminal session of each day
• xmotd add, remove, list, import, and export keep the message library simple
• It is local-first, fast, and dependency-light at runtime

Quick look

$ xmotd
Stay hungry, stay foolish.

$ xmotd add "Code is poetry"
Added: Code is poetry

$ xmotd list
1. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
2. Code is poetry

$ xmotd remove 2
Removed #2: Code is poetry

Install

Install from npm:

npm install -g motd-tool

Install from Homebrew:

brew install AlucPro/tap/motd-tool

The Homebrew formula downloads the release tarball from GitHub Releases.

For local development, this repository uses pnpm and TypeScript:

pnpm install
pnpm check

Usage

Print a random message:

xmotd

Add a message:

xmotd add "Ship small, ship often"

Remove a message by index or exact text:

xmotd remove 2
xmotd remove "Ship small, ship often"

List all messages:

xmotd list

Import messages from .txt or .json:

xmotd import ./messages.txt
xmotd import ./messages.json

Export your current library:

xmotd export ./backup.json
xmotd export ./backup.txt

Enable once-per-day automatic output in your shell:

xmotd init

Preview the shell hook:

xmotd hook

See where files are stored:

xmotd paths

Default behavior

After installation, xmotd starts with one built-in message:

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Every manual xmotd run selects a random message from your local library.

The automatic shell hook uses a separate state file so the message only appears once per local calendar day.

Message storage

xmotd stores data in standard XDG-style locations:

• Config: ~/.config/motd-tool/messages.json
• State: ~/.local/state/motd-tool/state.json

You can override these with XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_STATE_HOME.

Release workflow

Project maintainers can use:

pnpm release:check

pnpm release:check runs build and tests, then updates the Homebrew formula SHA based on the npm tarball.

Release flow:

1. Update package.json version
2. Commit the release changes
3. Push main
4. Create and push a matching tag such as v1.0.1

git add .
git commit -m "release: v1.0.1"
git push origin main
git tag v1.0.1
git push origin v1.0.1

When the tag lands on GitHub, the Release workflow will:

• build and test the project
• publish motd-tool to npm with NPM_TOKEN
• rebuild the Homebrew formula with the new npm tarball SHA
• point the Homebrew formula at the matching GitHub Release asset
• push Formula/motd-tool.rb to AlucPro/homebrew-tap with HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN
• create a GitHub Release with the packaged tarball

GitHub Actions included in this repo:

• CI: install, build, test, and pack on pushes and pull requests
• Release: publish to npm, update the Homebrew tap, and attach the package tarball when a v* tag is pushed

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

The easiest way to contribute is to improve the default message set, shell support, and installation experience.

License

MIT