stytsch

Persistent, searchable command history for Windows cmd.exe — like Atuin, but for Windows.

I got frustrated that cmd.exe had nothing like Atuin. Clink gives you a better readline, but its history is a flat file with no fuzzy search, no context, no sync. And Atuin doesn't support Windows cmd at all. So I built stytsch — a Lua + Rust wrapper that hooks into Clink to simulate Atuin's behavior: press Up Arrow and get instant fuzzy search over your entire command history, across sessions, with execution metadata.

How It Works

stytsch is two things:

1. A Clink Lua plugin (stytsch.lua) that hooks into cmd.exe via Clink's readline. It captures every command you run (with exit code, duration, and working directory) and binds Up Arrow / Ctrl+R to launch fuzzy search.

2. A Rust CLI binary (stytsch.exe) that stores history in a local SQLite database (WAL mode for multi-session concurrency), deduplicates results, and pipes them through fzf for instant fuzzy matching.

You type commands → Clink captures them → stytsch records to SQLite
You press Up Arrow → Clink calls stytsch → stytsch pipes history through fzf
You select a command → Enter runs it | Tab pastes it for editing

Features

• Up Arrow / Ctrl+R — fuzzy search your entire history via fzf
• Enter — select and execute immediately
• Tab — select and paste to command line for editing
• Ctrl+Q — toggle history tracking on/off mid-session
• Cross-session — SQLite with WAL mode, works across multiple terminal windows simultaneously
• Context-aware — records working directory, exit code, and duration for every command
• Auto-pruning — configurable max_history (default 100,000), oldest entries pruned automatically
• Type-to-run — type a new command in the search box and press Enter to execute it directly
• Auto-installs fzf — if fzf isn't found, stytsch tries to install it via scoop, choco, or winget

Prerequisites

• Clink — required. Clink hooks into cmd.exe and provides the readline/scripting layer that stytsch plugs into. Install via scoop, choco, or the installer.

• fzf — required for fuzzy search. stytsch will try to auto-install it, or install manually:

  Package Manager	Command
  Scoop	scoop install fzf
  Chocolatey	choco install fzf
  Winget	winget install fzf
  MSYS2	pacman -S $MINGW_PACKAGE_PREFIX-fzf

Installation

One-liner (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bkoro/stytsch/main/installer/install.ps1 | iex

Downloads the latest release, adds to PATH, and sets up the Clink plugin automatically.

Scoop

scoop bucket add stytsch https://github.com/AKOrojo/stytsch
scoop install stytsch

Scoop will also install the dependencies (clink, fzf) automatically.

Manual download

1. Download stytsch.exe from Releases
2. Put it somewhere in your PATH (e.g. C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\stytsch\bin\)
3. Run stytsch install

From source (requires Rust)

git clone https://github.com/AKOrojo/stytsch
cd stytsch
cargo install --path .
stytsch install

What stytsch install does

1. Copies stytsch.lua to Clink's scripts directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\clink\)
2. Enables cmd.get_errorlevel in Clink settings (for exit code tracking)
3. Creates the config and database in %LOCALAPPDATA%\stytsch\

Open a new cmd.exe window after installing — Clink loads scripts at startup.

Usage

In the terminal

Just use cmd.exe normally. stytsch records every command in the background.

You can also type a new command directly in the search box — press Enter to run it even if it doesn't match any history.

CLI commands

stytsch search              # Open fuzzy search (default when run with no args)
stytsch search --fzf        # Force fzf backend
stytsch history list        # Show recent history
stytsch history list -c 50  # Show last 50 commands
stytsch history list --cwd C:\Projects  # Filter by directory
stytsch history delete <id> # Soft-delete an entry
stytsch stats               # Top commands, total count, database size
stytsch prune               # Remove entries beyond max_history
stytsch prune --keep 5000   # Keep only 5000 most recent
stytsch config show         # Show current configuration
stytsch config path         # Print config file location
stytsch install             # Install the Clink plugin
stytsch uninstall           # Remove the Clink plugin (keeps history)

Configuration

Config file: %LOCALAPPDATA%\stytsch\config.toml

# Search backend: "fzf" (default), "fuzzy" (built-in TUI), or "auto"
search_mode = "fzf"

# Maximum history entries to keep. Oldest are auto-pruned.
max_history = 100000

# Sync server URL (future feature)
# sync_server = "https://your-server.com"

Data Storage

• Database: %LOCALAPPDATA%\stytsch\history.db (SQLite, WAL mode)
• Config: %LOCALAPPDATA%\stytsch\config.toml
• Clink plugin: %LOCALAPPDATA%\clink\stytsch.lua

Each history entry stores:

Multi-Session Support

SQLite WAL (Write-Ahead Logging) mode allows multiple cmd.exe windows to read and write the same database simultaneously without locking. The Rust binary includes retry logic for the rare case of write contention under heavy load.

Uninstalling

stytsch uninstall

This removes the Clink plugin. Your history database is preserved at %LOCALAPPDATA%\stytsch\history.db.

To fully remove:

stytsch uninstall
cargo uninstall stytsch
rmdir /s /q %LOCALAPPDATA%\stytsch

Architecture

stytsch/
├── Cargo.toml
├── scripts/stytsch.lua     # Clink plugin (also embedded in binary)
└── src/
    ├── main.rs             # CLI: search, record, history, stats, prune, install
    ├── config.rs           # TOML config
    ├── db.rs               # SQLite + WAL, insert/search/prune with retry
    ├── schema.rs           # History struct, search filters
    ├── search.rs           # fzf integration with --expect and --print-query
    └── tui.rs              # Built-in ratatui TUI (fallback when fzf unavailable)

~700 lines of Rust + ~160 lines of Lua. One crate, no workspace complexity.

Why not just use Atuin?

Atuin is excellent — on macOS and Linux. But it doesn't support Windows cmd.exe. Atuin hooks into POSIX shells (bash, zsh, fish) via native shell hooks (precmd, preexec). Windows cmd.exe has no such hooks — it's a closed, legacy binary that Microsoft won't modify.

stytsch solves this by leveraging Clink, which injects a DLL into cmd.exe to replace its readline. Clink provides the Lua scripting API that stytsch uses to intercept commands and key bindings. The Rust binary handles everything else — database, search, deduplication, pruning.

License

MIT