tri-cli

A terminal-based interactive directory visualizer, like tree but with keyboard navigation, shortcuts, colors, and treemap visuals:

Installation

Global Installation (Recommended)

It's recommended to install globally:

npm install -g tri-cli

After global installation, you can run tri directly from anywhere:

tri .

Local Installation

If you don't want to install globally, you can install locally and then run anywhere with npx:

npm install tri-cli

For local installations, use npx to run the command:

npx tri .

Or add it to your package.json scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "tree": "tri"
  }
}

Then run with npm run tree.

Usage

tri [directory] [options]

Examples

tri .                # visualize current directory
tri ../bionemo -L 2  # show 2 levels deep
tri --dir src        # specify directory with flag
tri src -s           # preload all sizes (enables immediate treemap)
tri --dir src -c     # start with all directories collapsed

Interactive Controls

| Key | Action | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | ↑ / ↓ | Navigate files and folders | | Enter | Expand or collapse a directory | | [a-z]/[0-9] | Type shortcut to jump to item | | d | Calculate and display sizes recursively | | l | Show last modified dates (ls -l style) | | m | Toggle treemap view | | Esc | Clear typed shortcut | | q | Quit |

Command Line Options

| Option | Description | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | [directory] | Directory to visualize (default: current dir) | | -L <level> | Maximum depth to load initially (default: 1) | | -s, --size | Preload all file/directory sizes | | -c, --collapse | Start with all directories collapsed | | -h, --help | Show help message |

Features

Tree View

• Keyboard shortcuts: Each item gets a shortcut label - just type it to jump there instantly
• Tree-style lines: Visual hierarchy with Unicode box-drawing characters (├─, ╰─, │)
• Color coding: Different colors for different file types
• Lazy loading: Only loads directory contents when you expand them (fast for large directories)
• Size calculation: Press d on any item to calculate disk usage recursively
• Date display: Press l to show last modified dates in ls -l format

Treemap View

• Press m to visualize the selected directory as a treemap
• Visual representation of file/directory sizes
• Hierarchical rectangles sized proportionally to disk usage
• Color-coded by file type or directory group

Development

Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/jwilber/tri-cli.git
cd tri-cli
npm install

Build and link for local development:

npm run build
npm link

Now you can run tri from anywhere and it will use your local development version.

License

MIT

Author

Jared Wilber