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me

A better whoami, with context.

me keeps the Unix-tool shape: small, fast, local-first, and scriptable. It adds enough structure to answer "who am I here?" without becoming a system inventory tool.

Quick Example

identity:
  user:   user
  host:   dev-machine
  shell:  zsh

system:
  uid:     501
  gid:     20
  groups:  staff, admin, _developer (+2)
  pid:     24811
  ppid:    24803
  tty:     ttys001

session:
  privilege:  user
  sudo:       no
  ssh:        no

network:
  ipv4:  192.168.0.10 (+2)
  ipv6:  fd12::10 (+1)

location:
  pwd:      /Users/user/dev/me
  context:  rust 1.94.1 · git(main)

Installation

The fastest way on macOS is Homebrew. For other platforms, use a release binary.

macOS (Homebrew, recommended)

brew tap harveyTon/me
brew install me

macOS / Linux (one-line install)

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harveyTon/me/main/scripts/install.sh)

Download a release binary

Releases: github.com/harveyTon/me/releases Prebuilt archives are available for macOS, Linux, and Windows.

From Source

git clone https://github.com/harveyTon/me.git
cd me
cargo build --locked --release

Binary:

target/release/me

Verify the install

me
me --compact

Why me

whoami is great when all you want is the username:

$ whoami
user

me keeps that shape, but answers the next questions:

• who am I?
• where am I (pwd)?
• am I in SSH, sudo, or a container?
• what project am I working on (rust, node, python, ...)?

The goal stays narrow: identity first, context second, location included, with no drift into a general system inspector.

Examples

SSH Session

identity:
  user:   user
  host:   server-01
  shell:  bash

system:
  uid:     1000
  gid:     1000
  groups:  user, deploy
  pid:     24811
  ppid:    24803
  tty:     pts/0

session:
  privilege:  user
  sudo:       no
  ssh:        yes

network:
  ipv4:  10.0.0.5

location:
  pwd:      /srv/app
  context:  rust 1.94.1 · git(main)

sudo

identity:
  user:   root
  host:   server-01
  shell:  bash

system:
  uid:     0
  gid:     0
  groups:  root
  pid:     24902
  ppid:    24890
  tty:     pts/0

session:
  privilege:  root
  sudo:       yes
  ssh:        yes

network:
  ipv4:  10.0.0.5

location:
  pwd:      /srv/app
  context:  rust 1.94.1 · git(main)

Compact Mode

user@dev-machine · local · rust 1.94.1 · git:main · me

JSON

{
  "user": "user",
  "pwd": {
    "raw": "/Users/user/dev/me",
    "display": "/Users/user/dev/me"
  },
  "context": {
    "projects": [
      {
        "kind": "rust",
        "version": "1.94.1"
      }
    ],
    "git": {
      "branch": "main"
    }
  }
}

Usage

me
me --compact
me --json
me update --check
me --help

Field filters:

me -u
me -u -h
me -n

Other modes:

me --plain
me --format config
me --watch
me --compact --fast
me --full

Output Modes

Default

Human-friendly block output:

me

Compact

One-line output for prompts and quick checks:

me --compact

user@dev-machine · local · rust 1.94.1 · git:main · me

JSON

Machine-readable output for scripts:

me --json

{
  "user": "user",
  "host": "dev-machine",
  "privilege": "user",
  "sudo": false,
  "ssh": false,
  "pwd": {
    "raw": "/Users/user/dev/me",
    "display": "/Users/user/dev/me"
  }
}

Context Awareness

me detects a small set of local context signals automatically:

• SSH sessions
• Docker/container environments
• project context for Rust, Node, Python, Go, Java, Ruby, C/C++, PHP, Lua, Swift, R, C#, and Docker Compose
• Git branches when the current directory is inside a Git work tree

Multiple project signals can coexist, but default output stays bounded and quiet. Context stays a secondary signal in the default text output, even when several detectors match.

location:
  context:  node 24.14.1 (pnpm, turbo) · python 3.12 (.venv) · git(main) (+1)

The default command stays local-first. It does not query cloud identity, inspect remote services, or perform public IP lookups.

Shell Integration

Set up me in your shell:

me install

Remove it later:

me uninstall

Update me itself:

me update

Configuration

Config file:

~/.config/me/config.yaml

me creates the default config on first run if it does not exist. If the file is invalid, me prints a warning and falls back to built-in defaults. If the file is too large, me also falls back to built-in defaults with a short warning.

Minimal example:

view: block
icons: auto
context:
  enabled: true
  project: true
  container: true
  ssh: true
  git: true

CLI flags override environment variables, which override config, which overrides defaults.

Philosophy

me is identity-first.

The default output should answer the common question quickly: who am I, on which machine, in what session? Context is useful, but it should not dominate the output. It appears as a quiet secondary signal after the main identity and state fields.

There is no heavy UI, no daemon, and no plugin system. The output is plain text by default and should remain readable in any terminal, with or without color.

Release

The current version is tracked in Cargo.toml. Releases follow semantic versioning.

The GitHub release workflow builds artifacts for:

• macOS arm64
• macOS x64
• Linux x64
• Linux arm64
• Windows x64
• Windows arm64

Local release artifacts can be built with:

scripts/build.sh

See RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md for the detailed release procedure.

Roadmap

• Keep block, compact, JSON, and prompt-oriented output behavior stable.
• Improve detector coverage where project signals remain strong, cheap, and local-first.
• Keep startup time predictable for prompt usage, especially in --fast mode.
• Keep release artifacts, Homebrew distribution, and install paths aligned across platforms.

License

MIT