@centricle/whyis 0.1.0

package/LICENSE

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+MIT License
+
+Copyright (c) 2026 Centricle LLC
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
+SOFTWARE.

package/README.md

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+# whyis
+
+Why is it called that? A CLI etymology reference for shell commands and tools.
+
+Every name has a story. Some are acronyms, some are jokes, some are named after people or dogs. This is the encyclopedia.
+
+## Vintage Unix / GNU
+
+| Command | Stands For / Meaning | Origin / Lore | Source |
+|---------|----------------------|---------------|--------|
+| `ar` | Archiver | The original Unix file archiver, predating tar — still quietly used today to build static libraries (.a files). | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_%28Unix%29) |
+| `awk` | Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan | Named after its three Bell Labs creators — pronounced like the seabird 'auk,' which graces the cover of The AWK Programming Language. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWK) |
+| `biff` | Named after a dog | Named after Heidi Stettner's dog at UC Berkeley who barked at the mailman — a mail notification command named after a literal mail alert system. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biff_%28Unix%29) |
+| `cat` | Catenate | Named after 'catenate,' not 'concatenate' — Kernighan and Pike called it 'a slightly obscure synonym.' | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_%28Unix%29) |
+| `cc` | C Compiler | The simplest possible abbreviation for the language that rewrote Unix itself — appeared in Version 3 Unix alongside C. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29) |
+| `cd` | Change Directory | So fundamental it's a shell builtin, not an external program — a child process can't change the parent's directory. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cd_%28command%29) |
+| `chmod` | Change Mode | The 'mode' is the permission bitmask — rwxrwxrwx or its octal shorthand, inherited from Multics access control. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod) |
+| `chown` | Change Owner | On most modern systems, only root can chown — letting users give away files would break disk quotas and audit trails. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chown) |
+| `cp` | Copy | Part of Version 1 Unix (1971) — because 'copy' was four letters too many for Thompson and Ritchie. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cp_%28Unix%29) |
+| `cron` | From Greek 'chronos' (time) (?) | Named for the Greek personification of time — 'Command Run On Notice' is a backronym. The true etymology is genuinely disputed. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron) |
+| `curl` | Client for URLs | Daniel Stenberg built it in 1996 to fetch currency exchange rates for an IRC bot — was first 'httpget', then 'urlget', then 'curl.' | [curl.se](https://curl.se/docs/history.html) |
+| `cut` | Cut (to extract a section) | Gottfried Luderer wrote it at Bell Labs for System III — BSD didn't pick it up until 4.3BSD-Reno around 1990, nearly a decade late. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_%28Unix%29) |
+| `dd` | Data Definition (?) | Dennis Ritchie confirmed it alludes to IBM JCL's DD cards — Eric Raymond called the JCL-style syntax 'clearly a prank.' | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_%28Unix%29) |
+| `df` | Disk Free | Version 1 Unix (1971) — one of the oldest surviving commands, born when monitoring a few megabytes was life or death. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Df_%28Unix%29) |
+| `diff` | Differences | Douglas McIlroy and James Hunt wrote it for V5 Unix (1974) — McIlroy's 1976 algorithm paper became the foundation of all file comparison. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff) |
+| `du` | Disk Usage | The complement to df — df tells you what's free, du tells you who's hogging it. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_%28Unix%29) |
+| `ed` | Editor | Ken Thompson wrote it in August 1969 as one of the first three Unix programs — assembler, editor, shell — still the POSIX standard editor. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_%28text_editor%29) |
+| `emacs` | Editing MACroS | Born in 1976 as TECO macros at MIT — so many macros ending in MAC/MACS accumulated that Stallman and Steele unified them. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs) |
+| `ex` | Extended (editor) | Bill Joy and Chuck Haley extended 'em' (editor for mortals) — George Coulouris had deemed ed's interface fit only for 'immortals.' | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_%28text_editor%29) |
+| `find` | Find (to locate files) | Dick Haight wrote it for V5 Unix as part of the Programmer's Workbench, designed to pair with cpio for backup-and-restore. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find_%28Unix%29) |
+| `grep` | Global Regular Expression Print | From the ed command g/re/p — Ken Thompson extracted it into a standalone tool overnight. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grep) |
+| `gzip` | GNU zip | Gailly and Adler wrote it in 1992 as a free replacement for 'compress' after Unisys started enforcing LZW patents. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gzip) |
+| `head` | Head (the beginning of something) | Many early Unix versions lacked it entirely, using 'sed 10q' instead — head was a convenience that arrived fashionably late. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_%28Unix%29) |
+| `kill` | Kill (terminate a process) | A misnomer — it actually sends any signal, not just SIGKILL, but the name stuck because stopping runaway processes was the common case. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_%28command%29) |
+| `ld` | Link Editor (or Loader) (?) | The dual meaning reflects the tool's dual role: linking object files together and loading external symbols for resolution. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_%28computing%29) |
+| `lex` | Lexical Analyzer Generator | Written by Mike Lesk and Eric Schmidt (yes, that Eric Schmidt) in 1975 — turns regexes into C code for tokenizing. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_%28software%29) |
+| `ln` | Link | Creates additional names for the same inode — the reason Unix files can have multiple identities since the PDP-7 days. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ln_%28Unix%29) |
+| `ls` | List | Inherited from Multics where 'listf' became 'list' became 'ls' — each generation dropped letters. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ls) |
+| `make` | Make (to build/construct) | Stuart Feldman wrote it over a weekend in 1976 after Steve Johnson wasted a morning debugging a correct program that hadn't been recompiled. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_%28software%29) |
+| `man` | Manual | The first Unix Programmer's Manual was published in 1971 — 'man' made it available on-line (meaning interactive, not internet). | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page) |
+| `mv` | Move | Moves or renames — in Unix, renaming IS moving, because a filename is just a directory entry pointing at an inode. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mv) |
+| `nano` | Nano's ANOther editor (recursive acronym) | Originally called TIP (TIP Isn't Pico), renamed to avoid conflict — 'nano' is one SI prefix larger than 'pico', the editor it clones. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_nano) |
+| `nc` | Network Cat (netcat) | Written by a hacker known only as 'Hobbit' in 1995 — applies Unix's cat philosophy (read/write streams) to network sockets. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcat) |
+| `nm` | Name List | V7 man pages called the symbol table a 'name list' — the abbreviation stuck long after the terminology didn't. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nm_%28Unix%29) |
+| `nroff` | Newer ROFF | The name traces back through roff to RUNOFF (1964), named for the phrase 'to run off a document' — as in, run off some copies. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nroff) |
+| `od` | Octal Dump | One of the oldest Unix commands (Version 1), named for its default output format before hex became standard. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Od_%28Unix%29) |
+| `paste` | Paste (to join things together) | Also by Gottfried Luderer — the counterpart to cut, it merges files side-by-side like pasting columns of a spreadsheet. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paste_%28Unix%29) |
+| `patch` | Patch (to repair or update) | Larry Wall (yes, the Perl guy) wrote it in 1985 — enabled swapping small change-sets instead of whole files, before version control existed. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_%28Unix%29) |
+| `ping` | Named after the sound of sonar | Mike Muuss named it after the sonar pulse in 1983 — 'Packet InterNet Groper' is a backronym from Dave Mills that Muuss never endorsed. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_%28networking_utility%29) |
+| `ps` | Process Status | Version 3 Unix (1973) — its BSD and System V flag conventions never reconciled, which is why ps aux and ps -ef both exist. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps_%28Unix%29) |
+| `pwd` | Print Working Directory | Descended from Multics 'print_wdir' — POSIX diplomatically avoids 'print' and says 'return working directory name.' | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwd) |
+| `rc` | Run Commands | Named after RUNCOM, a 1963 CTSS facility by Louis Pouzin — the same ancestry behind every .bashrc, .vimrc, and .zshrc. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rc_%28Unix_shell%29) |
+| `rm` | Remove | No trash can, no undo, no confirmation by default — Unix's most unforgiving two letters. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rm_%28Unix%29) |
+| `scp` | Secure Copy | The encrypted successor to BSD's rcp (remote copy) — SSH encryption grafted onto the old remote copy protocol. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_copy_protocol) |
+| `sed` | Stream Editor | Lee McMahon wanted g/re/s and built it as a non-interactive editor that reads stdin line by line. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sed) |
+| `shuf` | Shuffle | A GNU coreutils addition by Paul Eggert — straightforward name, no folklore, just shuffles lines like a deck of cards. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuf) |
+| `sort` | Sort (to arrange in order) | Ken Thompson wrote it for Version 1 Unix — by V5 he'd invented the '-' convention for stdin because sort needed both files and pipes. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sort_%28Unix%29) |
+| `ssh` | Secure Shell | Tatu Ylonen created it in 1995 after a password-sniffing attack at Helsinki University — port 22 sits right between FTP (21) and Telnet (23). | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell) |
+| `stty` | Set TTY (Set Teletype) | Version 2 Unix — 'tty' itself comes from 'teletype', the physical machines that were the first Unix terminals. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stty) |
+| `su` | Substitute User | Universally misremembered as 'super user' because that's how everyone uses it — but the man pages say 'substitute user.' | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_%28Unix%29) |
+| `sudo` | Superuser Do | Conceived around 1980 at SUNY Buffalo — officially evolved from 'superuser do' to 'substitute user do' as it gained the ability to run as any user. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudo) |
+| `tac` | 'cat' spelled backwards | Does what cat does, but in reverse line order — and the name is literally 'cat' backwards. Peak Unix humor. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_%28Unix%29#tac) |
+| `tail` | Tail (the end of something) | Counterpart to head — its '-f' (follow) flag for watching live log output became one of Unix's most beloved features. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_%28Unix%29) |
+| `tar` | Tape Archive | Born in V7 Unix (1979) to wrangle magnetic tape drives — replaced 'tp', which replaced 'tap', each name getting lazier. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_%28computing%29) |
+| `tee` | Named after the T-shaped pipe fitting | Splits a data stream like a plumber's T-joint — one copy to stdout, one to a file. The metaphor is physical. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee_%28command%29) |
+| `top` | Shows the 'top' CPU consumers (?) | Written by William LeFebvre in 1984 — 'Table Of Processes' is a backronym; it just shows whatever's on top. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_%28software%29) |
+| `tput` | Terminal Put (?) | Bill Joy wrote the first version for 4BSD in 1980 — it 'puts' terminal capabilities (bold, color, cursor movement) into your scripts. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tput) |
+| `tr` | Translate (or Transliterate) | Douglas McIlroy wrote it for V4 Unix, inherited from Multics — the oldest surviving single-purpose text transformer. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr_%28Unix%29) |
+| `traceroute` | Trace Route | Van Jacobson wrote it in 1987 using a clever TTL-expiry trick suggested by Steve Deering — the name simply describes what it does. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traceroute) |
+| `troff` | Typesetter ROFF | When Bell Labs got a phototypesetter, Ossanna forked nroff for proportional fonts — 't' distinguished typeset from terminal output. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff) |
+| `uniq` | Unique | Only detects adjacent duplicates by design — built as a filter for already-sorted data where identical lines sit together. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniq) |
+| `vi` | Visual (mode of ex) | Bill Joy's visual mode for ex became so popular that the two-character shortcut to enter it became the command's entire identity. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi_%28text_editor%29) |
+| `wc` | Word Count | Version 1 Unix (1971) — originally counted words, text lines, and roff control lines, doubling as a typesetting assistant. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wc_%28Unix%29) |
+| `wget` | World Wide Web get | Portmanteau of 'Web' and 'get' — originally called 'Geturl' before adopting wget in version 1.4.0, November 1996. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wget) |
+| `xargs` | eXtended ARGuments | Bridges the gap for commands that take arguments but not stdin — converts piped input into command-line arguments. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xargs) |
+| `yacc` | Yet Another Compiler-Compiler | Stephen Johnson's self-deprecating name belied a tool so influential he later said its contribution to Unix and C was what he was proudest of. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacc) |
+
+## Modern Replacements
+
+| Command | Stands For / Meaning | Origin / Lore | Source |
+|---------|----------------------|---------------|--------|
+| `bat` | A cat with wings | Give the Unix cat command wings (syntax highlighting, git integration) and you get a bat. The animal pun is the whole pitch. | [GitHub](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat) |
+| `btm` | bottom — the opposite of top | Named as a cheeky antonym to the top command it replaces; btm mirrors how top is already three letters. | [GitHub](https://github.com/ClementTsang/bottom) |
+| `delta` | Delta (Δ) — the symbol for difference (?) | A diff viewer named after the universal symbol for difference; every diff is literally a delta between two states. | [GitHub](https://github.com/dandavison/delta) |
+| `dust` | du + Rust | The package is literally named du-dust in crate registries, making the portmanteau explicit. | [GitHub](https://github.com/bootandy/dust) |
+| `eza` | Minimal rename of exa | Community fork of exa after its author went unreachable — renamed because they lacked permission to keep the original name. | [GitHub](https://github.com/orgs/eza-community/discussions/239) |
+| `fd` | Shortened form of find (?) | Half the letters of find, roughly half the keystrokes — naming mirrors the tool's philosophy of doing less to get more. | [GitHub](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd) |
+| `fish` | Friendly Interactive SHell | Axel Liljencrantz created it in 2005 — the acronym is the design philosophy: be friendly first, POSIX second (or never). | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_%28Unix_shell%29) |
+| `fzf` | FuZzy Finder (?) | Three consonants that capture the entire product: fuzzy finding, nothing more, nothing less. | [GitHub](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) |
+| `hyperfine` | Named after the hyperfine transition of caesium-133 | A benchmarking tool named after the atomic phenomenon that literally defines the SI second. | [GitHub](https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine) |
+| `jq` | JSON query (?) | Two letters that launched a thousand pipelines; jq did for JSON what awk did for columnar text. | [GitHub](https://github.com/jqlang/jq) |
+| `procs` | Processes | Where ps cryptically abbreviates 'process status', procs just says what it shows: processes. | [GitHub](https://github.com/dalance/procs) |
+| `rg` | ripgrep — 'rip' as in tear through text fast | Author intended 'rip' as speed; the 'RIP grep' double meaning didn't dawn on him until after release. | [GitHub](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/discussions/2413) |
+| `sd` | Search & Displace | s[earch] & d[isplace] — a cheekier, more intuitive framing than sed's 'stream editor.' | [GitHub](https://github.com/chmln/sd) |
+| `starship` | Space-themed successor to Spaceship prompt (?) | Spaceship was a Zsh prompt 'for astronauts'; Starship is the faster, cross-shell Rust evolution of that concept. | [GitHub](https://github.com/starship/starship) |
+| `tldr` | Too Long; Didn't Read | Man pages are thorough but intimidating — tldr pages are the 'skip to the examples' version of documentation. | [GitHub](https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr) |
+| `tmux` | Terminal Multiplexer | Nicholas Marriott created it in 2007 as a BSD-licensed alternative to GNU Screen — the name is a straight abbreviation. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux) |
+| `tokei` | Japanese 時計 (tokei) meaning clock | The predecessor tool is cloc (sounds like clock); tokei is the Japanese word for clock — a bilingual pun. | [GitHub](https://github.com/XAMPPRocky/tokei/issues/1086) |
+| `yq` | YAML query | The name is the entire pitch: it's jq, but for YAML (and now XML, TOML, CSV, and properties too). | [GitHub](https://github.com/mikefarah/yq) |
+| `zoxide` | z + oxide (Rust = iron oxide) (?) | Combines its spiritual ancestor (the z shell plugin) with a nod to its Rust implementation via chemistry. | [GitHub](https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide) |
+| `zsh` | Z Shell | Paul Falstad saw his Princeton TA Zhong Shao's login name 'zsh' and thought it sounded like a good shell name. | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_shell) |
+
+## CLI Usage
+
+```bash
+whyis grep          # look up a single command
+whyis grep awk sed  # look up multiple
+whyis --list        # list all commands
+whyis --random      # random entry
+```
+
+```bash
+npm install -g @centricle/whyis
+```
+
+## Contributing
+
+PRs welcome. Every entry needs:
+
+1. An entry in `data/commands.json`
+2. A citation URL (official docs, author statement, or Wikipedia)
+3. If the origin is disputed, set `"uncertain": true`
+
+Run `npm run readme` to regenerate this table after editing the JSON.
+
+## License
+
+MIT

package/bin/whyis.js

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+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+const { find, findMultiple, listAll, random } = require('../lib/lookup');
+const { formatTable, formatSingle } = require('../lib/render');
+
+const args = process.argv.slice(2);
+
+if (args.length === 0 || args[0] === '--help' || args[0] === '-h') {
+  console.log(`
+  whyis — CLI etymology reference
+
+  Usage:
+    whyis <command>            Look up a command
+    whyis <cmd1> <cmd2> ...    Look up multiple commands
+    whyis --list               List all commands
+    whyis --random             Random entry
+    whyis --help               This message
+`);
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+if (args[0] === '--list') {
+  const all = listAll();
+  console.log(formatTable(all));
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+if (args[0] === '--random') {
+  const entry = random();
+  console.log(formatSingle(entry));
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+if (args.length === 1) {
+  const results = find(args[0]);
+  if (results.length === 0) {
+    console.log(`\n  Unknown command: ${args[0]}\n`);
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+  results.forEach(r => console.log(formatSingle(r)));
+} else {
+  const results = findMultiple(args);
+  if (results.length === 0) {
+    console.log('\n  No matching commands found.\n');
+    process.exit(1);
+  }
+  console.log('');
+  console.log(formatTable(results));
+  console.log('');
+}

package/data/commands.json

@@ -0,0 +1,690 @@
+[
+  {
+    "command": "ls",
+    "meaning": "List",
+    "lore": "Inherited from Multics where 'listf' became 'list' became 'ls' — each generation dropped letters.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ls",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "cd",
+    "meaning": "Change Directory",
+    "lore": "So fundamental it's a shell builtin, not an external program — a child process can't change the parent's directory.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cd_(command)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "pwd",
+    "meaning": "Print Working Directory",
+    "lore": "Descended from Multics 'print_wdir' — POSIX diplomatically avoids 'print' and says 'return working directory name.'",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwd",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "cat",
+    "meaning": "Catenate",
+    "lore": "Named after 'catenate,' not 'concatenate' — Kernighan and Pike called it 'a slightly obscure synonym.'",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tac",
+    "meaning": "'cat' spelled backwards",
+    "lore": "Does what cat does, but in reverse line order — and the name is literally 'cat' backwards. Peak Unix humor.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_(Unix)#tac",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "grep",
+    "meaning": "Global Regular Expression Print",
+    "lore": "From the ed command g/re/p — Ken Thompson extracted it into a standalone tool overnight.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grep",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "awk",
+    "meaning": "Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan",
+    "lore": "Named after its three Bell Labs creators — pronounced like the seabird 'auk,' which graces the cover of The AWK Programming Language.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWK",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "sed",
+    "meaning": "Stream Editor",
+    "lore": "Lee McMahon wanted g/re/s and built it as a non-interactive editor that reads stdin line by line.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sed",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tee",
+    "meaning": "Named after the T-shaped pipe fitting",
+    "lore": "Splits a data stream like a plumber's T-joint — one copy to stdout, one to a file. The metaphor is physical.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tee_(command)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "dd",
+    "meaning": "Data Definition",
+    "lore": "Dennis Ritchie confirmed it alludes to IBM JCL's DD cards — Eric Raymond called the JCL-style syntax 'clearly a prank.'",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "df",
+    "meaning": "Disk Free",
+    "lore": "Version 1 Unix (1971) — one of the oldest surviving commands, born when monitoring a few megabytes was life or death.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Df_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "du",
+    "meaning": "Disk Usage",
+    "lore": "The complement to df — df tells you what's free, du tells you who's hogging it.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "rm",
+    "meaning": "Remove",
+    "lore": "No trash can, no undo, no confirmation by default — Unix's most unforgiving two letters.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rm_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "cp",
+    "meaning": "Copy",
+    "lore": "Part of Version 1 Unix (1971) — because 'copy' was four letters too many for Thompson and Ritchie.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cp_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "mv",
+    "meaning": "Move",
+    "lore": "Moves or renames — in Unix, renaming IS moving, because a filename is just a directory entry pointing at an inode.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mv",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ln",
+    "meaning": "Link",
+    "lore": "Creates additional names for the same inode — the reason Unix files can have multiple identities since the PDP-7 days.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ln_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "chmod",
+    "meaning": "Change Mode",
+    "lore": "The 'mode' is the permission bitmask — rwxrwxrwx or its octal shorthand, inherited from Multics access control.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "chown",
+    "meaning": "Change Owner",
+    "lore": "On most modern systems, only root can chown — letting users give away files would break disk quotas and audit trails.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chown",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ps",
+    "meaning": "Process Status",
+    "lore": "Version 3 Unix (1973) — its BSD and System V flag conventions never reconciled, which is why ps aux and ps -ef both exist.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "top",
+    "meaning": "Shows the 'top' CPU consumers",
+    "lore": "Written by William LeFebvre in 1984 — 'Table Of Processes' is a backronym; it just shows whatever's on top.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_(software)",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "kill",
+    "meaning": "Kill (terminate a process)",
+    "lore": "A misnomer — it actually sends any signal, not just SIGKILL, but the name stuck because stopping runaway processes was the common case.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_(command)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "man",
+    "meaning": "Manual",
+    "lore": "The first Unix Programmer's Manual was published in 1971 — 'man' made it available on-line (meaning interactive, not internet).",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ssh",
+    "meaning": "Secure Shell",
+    "lore": "Tatu Ylonen created it in 1995 after a password-sniffing attack at Helsinki University — port 22 sits right between FTP (21) and Telnet (23).",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "scp",
+    "meaning": "Secure Copy",
+    "lore": "The encrypted successor to BSD's rcp (remote copy) — SSH encryption grafted onto the old remote copy protocol.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_copy_protocol",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tar",
+    "meaning": "Tape Archive",
+    "lore": "Born in V7 Unix (1979) to wrangle magnetic tape drives — replaced 'tp', which replaced 'tap', each name getting lazier.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_(computing)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "gzip",
+    "meaning": "GNU zip",
+    "lore": "Gailly and Adler wrote it in 1992 as a free replacement for 'compress' after Unisys started enforcing LZW patents.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gzip",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "curl",
+    "meaning": "Client for URLs",
+    "lore": "Daniel Stenberg built it in 1996 to fetch currency exchange rates for an IRC bot — was first 'httpget', then 'urlget', then 'curl.'",
+    "source": "https://curl.se/docs/history.html",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "wget",
+    "meaning": "World Wide Web get",
+    "lore": "Portmanteau of 'Web' and 'get' — originally called 'Geturl' before adopting wget in version 1.4.0, November 1996.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wget",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "diff",
+    "meaning": "Differences",
+    "lore": "Douglas McIlroy and James Hunt wrote it for V5 Unix (1974) — McIlroy's 1976 algorithm paper became the foundation of all file comparison.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "patch",
+    "meaning": "Patch (to repair or update)",
+    "lore": "Larry Wall (yes, the Perl guy) wrote it in 1985 — enabled swapping small change-sets instead of whole files, before version control existed.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "find",
+    "meaning": "Find (to locate files)",
+    "lore": "Dick Haight wrote it for V5 Unix as part of the Programmer's Workbench, designed to pair with cpio for backup-and-restore.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "xargs",
+    "meaning": "eXtended ARGuments",
+    "lore": "Bridges the gap for commands that take arguments but not stdin — converts piped input into command-line arguments.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xargs",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "sort",
+    "meaning": "Sort (to arrange in order)",
+    "lore": "Ken Thompson wrote it for Version 1 Unix — by V5 he'd invented the '-' convention for stdin because sort needed both files and pipes.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sort_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "uniq",
+    "meaning": "Unique",
+    "lore": "Only detects adjacent duplicates by design — built as a filter for already-sorted data where identical lines sit together.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniq",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "wc",
+    "meaning": "Word Count",
+    "lore": "Version 1 Unix (1971) — originally counted words, text lines, and roff control lines, doubling as a typesetting assistant.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wc_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "head",
+    "meaning": "Head (the beginning of something)",
+    "lore": "Many early Unix versions lacked it entirely, using 'sed 10q' instead — head was a convenience that arrived fashionably late.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tail",
+    "meaning": "Tail (the end of something)",
+    "lore": "Counterpart to head — its '-f' (follow) flag for watching live log output became one of Unix's most beloved features.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tr",
+    "meaning": "Translate (or Transliterate)",
+    "lore": "Douglas McIlroy wrote it for V4 Unix, inherited from Multics — the oldest surviving single-purpose text transformer.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "cut",
+    "meaning": "Cut (to extract a section)",
+    "lore": "Gottfried Luderer wrote it at Bell Labs for System III — BSD didn't pick it up until 4.3BSD-Reno around 1990, nearly a decade late.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "paste",
+    "meaning": "Paste (to join things together)",
+    "lore": "Also by Gottfried Luderer — the counterpart to cut, it merges files side-by-side like pasting columns of a spreadsheet.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paste_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "od",
+    "meaning": "Octal Dump",
+    "lore": "One of the oldest Unix commands (Version 1), named for its default output format before hex became standard.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Od_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "nm",
+    "meaning": "Name List",
+    "lore": "V7 man pages called the symbol table a 'name list' — the abbreviation stuck long after the terminology didn't.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nm_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ar",
+    "meaning": "Archiver",
+    "lore": "The original Unix file archiver, predating tar — still quietly used today to build static libraries (.a files).",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ld",
+    "meaning": "Link Editor (or Loader)",
+    "lore": "The dual meaning reflects the tool's dual role: linking object files together and loading external symbols for resolution.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linker_(computing)",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "cc",
+    "meaning": "C Compiler",
+    "lore": "The simplest possible abbreviation for the language that rewrote Unix itself — appeared in Version 3 Unix alongside C.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "make",
+    "meaning": "Make (to build/construct)",
+    "lore": "Stuart Feldman wrote it over a weekend in 1976 after Steve Johnson wasted a morning debugging a correct program that hadn't been recompiled.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(software)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "yacc",
+    "meaning": "Yet Another Compiler-Compiler",
+    "lore": "Stephen Johnson's self-deprecating name belied a tool so influential he later said its contribution to Unix and C was what he was proudest of.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacc",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "lex",
+    "meaning": "Lexical Analyzer Generator",
+    "lore": "Written by Mike Lesk and Eric Schmidt (yes, that Eric Schmidt) in 1975 — turns regexes into C code for tokenizing.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_(software)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "nroff",
+    "meaning": "Newer ROFF",
+    "lore": "The name traces back through roff to RUNOFF (1964), named for the phrase 'to run off a document' — as in, run off some copies.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nroff",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "troff",
+    "meaning": "Typesetter ROFF",
+    "lore": "When Bell Labs got a phototypesetter, Ossanna forked nroff for proportional fonts — 't' distinguished typeset from terminal output.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "biff",
+    "meaning": "Named after a dog",
+    "lore": "Named after Heidi Stettner's dog at UC Berkeley who barked at the mailman — a mail notification command named after a literal mail alert system.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biff_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "cron",
+    "meaning": "From Greek 'chronos' (time)",
+    "lore": "Named for the Greek personification of time — 'Command Run On Notice' is a backronym. The true etymology is genuinely disputed.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "sudo",
+    "meaning": "Superuser Do",
+    "lore": "Conceived around 1980 at SUNY Buffalo — officially evolved from 'superuser do' to 'substitute user do' as it gained the ability to run as any user.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudo",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "su",
+    "meaning": "Substitute User",
+    "lore": "Universally misremembered as 'super user' because that's how everyone uses it — but the man pages say 'substitute user.'",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_(Unix)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ping",
+    "meaning": "Named after the sound of sonar",
+    "lore": "Mike Muuss named it after the sonar pulse in 1983 — 'Packet InterNet Groper' is a backronym from Dave Mills that Muuss never endorsed.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_(networking_utility)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "traceroute",
+    "meaning": "Trace Route",
+    "lore": "Van Jacobson wrote it in 1987 using a clever TTL-expiry trick suggested by Steve Deering — the name simply describes what it does.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traceroute",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "nc",
+    "meaning": "Network Cat (netcat)",
+    "lore": "Written by a hacker known only as 'Hobbit' in 1995 — applies Unix's cat philosophy (read/write streams) to network sockets.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcat",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "vi",
+    "meaning": "Visual (mode of ex)",
+    "lore": "Bill Joy's visual mode for ex became so popular that the two-character shortcut to enter it became the command's entire identity.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi_(text_editor)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ed",
+    "meaning": "Editor",
+    "lore": "Ken Thompson wrote it in August 1969 as one of the first three Unix programs — assembler, editor, shell — still the POSIX standard editor.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_(text_editor)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "ex",
+    "meaning": "Extended (editor)",
+    "lore": "Bill Joy and Chuck Haley extended 'em' (editor for mortals) — George Coulouris had deemed ed's interface fit only for 'immortals.'",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_(text_editor)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "emacs",
+    "meaning": "Editing MACroS",
+    "lore": "Born in 1976 as TECO macros at MIT — so many macros ending in MAC/MACS accumulated that Stallman and Steele unified them.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "nano",
+    "meaning": "Nano's ANOther editor (recursive acronym)",
+    "lore": "Originally called TIP (TIP Isn't Pico), renamed to avoid conflict — 'nano' is one SI prefix larger than 'pico', the editor it clones.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_nano",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "shuf",
+    "meaning": "Shuffle",
+    "lore": "A GNU coreutils addition by Paul Eggert — straightforward name, no folklore, just shuffles lines like a deck of cards.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuf",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tput",
+    "meaning": "Terminal Put",
+    "lore": "Bill Joy wrote the first version for 4BSD in 1980 — it 'puts' terminal capabilities (bold, color, cursor movement) into your scripts.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tput",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "stty",
+    "meaning": "Set TTY (Set Teletype)",
+    "lore": "Version 2 Unix — 'tty' itself comes from 'teletype', the physical machines that were the first Unix terminals.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stty",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "rc",
+    "meaning": "Run Commands",
+    "lore": "Named after RUNCOM, a 1963 CTSS facility by Louis Pouzin — the same ancestry behind every .bashrc, .vimrc, and .zshrc.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rc_(Unix_shell)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "vintage"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "bat",
+    "meaning": "A cat with wings",
+    "lore": "Give the Unix cat command wings (syntax highlighting, git integration) and you get a bat. The animal pun is the whole pitch.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/sharkdp/bat",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "eza",
+    "meaning": "Minimal rename of exa",
+    "lore": "Community fork of exa after its author went unreachable — renamed because they lacked permission to keep the original name.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/orgs/eza-community/discussions/239",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "fd",
+    "meaning": "Shortened form of find",
+    "lore": "Half the letters of find, roughly half the keystrokes — naming mirrors the tool's philosophy of doing less to get more.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/sharkdp/fd",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "rg",
+    "meaning": "ripgrep — 'rip' as in tear through text fast",
+    "lore": "Author intended 'rip' as speed; the 'RIP grep' double meaning didn't dawn on him until after release.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/discussions/2413",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "fzf",
+    "meaning": "FuZzy Finder",
+    "lore": "Three consonants that capture the entire product: fuzzy finding, nothing more, nothing less.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/junegunn/fzf",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "zoxide",
+    "meaning": "z + oxide (Rust = iron oxide)",
+    "lore": "Combines its spiritual ancestor (the z shell plugin) with a nod to its Rust implementation via chemistry.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "sd",
+    "meaning": "Search & Displace",
+    "lore": "s[earch] & d[isplace] — a cheekier, more intuitive framing than sed's 'stream editor.'",
+    "source": "https://github.com/chmln/sd",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "dust",
+    "meaning": "du + Rust",
+    "lore": "The package is literally named du-dust in crate registries, making the portmanteau explicit.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/bootandy/dust",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "procs",
+    "meaning": "Processes",
+    "lore": "Where ps cryptically abbreviates 'process status', procs just says what it shows: processes.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/dalance/procs",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "btm",
+    "meaning": "bottom — the opposite of top",
+    "lore": "Named as a cheeky antonym to the top command it replaces; btm mirrors how top is already three letters.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/ClementTsang/bottom",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "hyperfine",
+    "meaning": "Named after the hyperfine transition of caesium-133",
+    "lore": "A benchmarking tool named after the atomic phenomenon that literally defines the SI second.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tokei",
+    "meaning": "Japanese 時計 (tokei) meaning clock",
+    "lore": "The predecessor tool is cloc (sounds like clock); tokei is the Japanese word for clock — a bilingual pun.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/XAMPPRocky/tokei/issues/1086",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "delta",
+    "meaning": "Delta (Δ) — the symbol for difference",
+    "lore": "A diff viewer named after the universal symbol for difference; every diff is literally a delta between two states.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/dandavison/delta",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "jq",
+    "meaning": "JSON query",
+    "lore": "Two letters that launched a thousand pipelines; jq did for JSON what awk did for columnar text.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/jqlang/jq",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "yq",
+    "meaning": "YAML query",
+    "lore": "The name is the entire pitch: it's jq, but for YAML (and now XML, TOML, CSV, and properties too).",
+    "source": "https://github.com/mikefarah/yq",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tldr",
+    "meaning": "Too Long; Didn't Read",
+    "lore": "Man pages are thorough but intimidating — tldr pages are the 'skip to the examples' version of documentation.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "starship",
+    "meaning": "Space-themed successor to Spaceship prompt",
+    "lore": "Spaceship was a Zsh prompt 'for astronauts'; Starship is the faster, cross-shell Rust evolution of that concept.",
+    "source": "https://github.com/starship/starship",
+    "uncertain": true,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "tmux",
+    "meaning": "Terminal Multiplexer",
+    "lore": "Nicholas Marriott created it in 2007 as a BSD-licensed alternative to GNU Screen — the name is a straight abbreviation.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "zsh",
+    "meaning": "Z Shell",
+    "lore": "Paul Falstad saw his Princeton TA Zhong Shao's login name 'zsh' and thought it sounded like a good shell name.",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_shell",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  },
+  {
+    "command": "fish",
+    "meaning": "Friendly Interactive SHell",
+    "lore": "Axel Liljencrantz created it in 2005 — the acronym is the design philosophy: be friendly first, POSIX second (or never).",
+    "source": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_(Unix_shell)",
+    "uncertain": false,
+    "category": "modern"
+  }
+]

package/lib/lookup.js

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+
+const DATA_PATH = path.join(__dirname, '..', 'data', 'commands.json');
+
+function loadCommands() {
+  const raw = fs.readFileSync(DATA_PATH, 'utf8');
+  return JSON.parse(raw);
+}
+
+function find(name) {
+  const commands = loadCommands();
+  return commands.filter(c => c.command === name.toLowerCase());
+}
+
+function findMultiple(names) {
+  const commands = loadCommands();
+  const set = new Set(names.map(n => n.toLowerCase()));
+  return commands.filter(c => set.has(c.command));
+}
+
+function listAll() {
+  return loadCommands();
+}
+
+function random() {
+  const commands = loadCommands();
+  return commands[Math.floor(Math.random() * commands.length)];
+}
+
+function byCategory(category) {
+  const commands = loadCommands();
+  return commands.filter(c => c.category === category);
+}
+
+module.exports = { find, findMultiple, listAll, random, byCategory };

package/lib/render.js

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+function pad(str, len) {
+  if (str.length >= len) return str.slice(0, len);
+  return str + ' '.repeat(len - str.length);
+}
+
+function formatEntry(entry) {
+  const uncertain = entry.uncertain ? ' (?)' : '';
+  const lines = [
+    `  ${entry.command}`,
+    `  ${entry.meaning}${uncertain}`,
+    `  ${entry.lore}`,
+    `  ${entry.source}`,
+  ];
+  return lines.join('\n');
+}
+
+function formatTable(entries) {
+  if (entries.length === 0) return '  No entries found.';
+
+  const col1 = 14;
+  const col2 = 40;
+
+  const header = `  ${pad('Command', col1)} ${pad('Stands For / Meaning', col2)} Origin / Lore`;
+  const sep = `  ${'-'.repeat(col1)} ${'-'.repeat(col2)} ${'-'.repeat(40)}`;
+
+  const rows = entries.map(e => {
+    const uncertain = e.uncertain ? ' (?)' : '';
+    return `  ${pad(e.command, col1)} ${pad(e.meaning + uncertain, col2)} ${e.lore}`;
+  });
+
+  return [header, sep, ...rows].join('\n');
+}
+
+function formatSingle(entry) {
+  const uncertain = entry.uncertain ? ' (?)' : '';
+  return [
+    '',
+    `  ${entry.command} — ${entry.meaning}${uncertain}`,
+    '',
+    `  ${entry.lore}`,
+    `  Source: ${entry.source}`,
+    '',
+  ].join('\n');
+}
+
+module.exports = { formatEntry, formatTable, formatSingle };

package/package.json

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+{
+  "name": "@centricle/whyis",
+  "version": "0.1.0",
+  "description": "CLI etymology reference — why is it called that?",
+  "main": "lib/lookup.js",
+  "bin": {
+    "whyis": "bin/whyis.js"
+  },
+  "files": [
+    "bin/",
+    "lib/",
+    "data/"
+  ],
+  "scripts": {
+    "readme": "node scripts/generate-readme.js"
+  },
+  "repository": {
+    "type": "git",
+    "url": "https://github.com/centricle/whyis.git"
+  },
+  "keywords": [
+    "cli",
+    "etymology",
+    "unix",
+    "shell",
+    "terminal",
+    "reference"
+  ],
+  "engines": {
+    "node": ">=18"
+  },
+  "author": "ksmith <ksmith@centricle.com>",
+  "license": "MIT"
+}