explaingit

clefspear/starcommand

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

24ShellAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A cross-shell terminal greeting that draws a unique, reproducible rocket ship from a random color palette every time you open a new tab.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((starcommand))
    Generation
      Six Hex Color Codes
      Random Seed Per Launch
      Deterministic Rockets
    Cross Shell
      Bash
      Zsh
      Fish
      PowerShell
    Star Command
      Save Favorites
      Browse History
      Preview Palette
    Settings
      Color Theme
      Favorite Weight
      Neon Mode

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Add a fun, unique generative rocket greeting to every new terminal tab across bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell.

USE CASE 2

Save a favorite rocket palette and have it reappear at a set frequency alongside fresh random ones.

USE CASE 3

Browse your recent rocket history to recover one that appeared a few tabs ago.

USE CASE 4

Reproduce the exact same rocket design on a different machine or shell by reusing its six hex color codes.

What is it built with?

ShellBashZshFishPowerShell

How does it compare?

clefspear/starcommandalexwortega/claude-ml-intern-skill5p00kyy/club-5060ti
Stars242423
LanguageShellShellShell
Setup difficultyeasymoderatehard
Complexity2/54/53/5
Audiencedeveloperresearcherdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Single curl or PowerShell install command depending on your shell.

In plain English

Starcommand is a shell greeting script that draws a different rocket ship in your terminal every time you open a new tab or window. It works in bash, zsh, fish, and PowerShell, so you can use it on Mac, Linux, or Windows without switching your setup. Each rocket is built from a palette of six color codes. The colors control everything: which 18 cells around the rocket light up as stars, which of 8 flame shapes appears at the bottom, and the overall color scheme of the body and portholes. The math means there are roughly two times ten to the forty-third power distinct rockets possible, which is more than you could ever see in a human lifetime of opening terminals. Each launch draws a fresh palette from your system's random source, so two identical rockets appearing twice is, for all practical purposes, impossible. The interesting flip side is that every rocket is fully reproducible. Because the six hex codes determine everything about how a rocket looks, saving those codes saves the entire design. Open the same six codes in bash on your laptop and in PowerShell on a Windows machine and you get the identical stars in the identical positions with the identical flame. The project includes a parity test that runs all four shell implementations against the same reference and checks for zero differences. The star command manages your collection. You can save a rocket you like, list your saved favorites, browse your recent history to rescue one that rolled up a few tabs ago, and preview any custom palette before adding it. A weight setting controls how often your terminal shows a saved favorite versus rolling something new. Color modes let you switch star colors between gold, plain white, and a neon mode that assigns every star its own color from a 28-color wheel. Installing is a single curl or PowerShell command depending on your shell. Running star update fetches newer versions, and the tool can optionally check for updates in the background on a weekly schedule if you opt in.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Help me install starcommand and set it up as my terminal greeting in zsh.
Prompt 2
Explain how starcommand uses six hex color codes to deterministically generate the stars and flame of a rocket.
Prompt 3
Show me how to use the star command to save my favorite rocket palette and adjust how often it shows up versus a random one.
Prompt 4
Walk me through the star history and star show commands so I can recover and preview past rocket palettes.
Prompt 5
I want the stars to stay readable on a light-mode terminal. Show me the setting to change that.

Frequently asked questions

What is starcommand?

A cross-shell terminal greeting that draws a unique, reproducible rocket ship from a random color palette every time you open a new tab.

What language is starcommand written in?

Mainly Shell. The stack also includes Shell, Bash, Zsh.

How hard is starcommand to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is starcommand for?

Mainly developer.

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