bx

Simple, cross-platform, and fast command aliases with superpowers.

A fork of Bonnie with a shorter, snappier command name.

Releases | Bonnie Documentation

Why "bx"?

• Short - Only 2 characters to type (vs 6 for "bonnie")
• Unique - Fairly unused command name in the Linux/macOS world
• Meaningful - stands for "bonnie execute" - Thanks to @arctic_hen7 for the wonderful work!

Features

bx is a command aliasing tool that lets you define short aliases for long commands you run repeatedly. Here's what it supports:

• Simple key-value aliasing
• Inserting custom arguments into commands
• Interpolating environment variables
• Adding all arguments in a single place
• Using different commands on different operating systems
• Specifying custom shells for individual commands
• Specifying default shells for different OSes on a per-file basis
• Infinitely nestable subcommands
• Subcommands executed in a certain order based on exit codes
• Caching large config files after parsing for performance
• Initializing new config files from templates
• Global templates in ~/.bx/template.toml
• Debug mode

If you have commands you routinely run in a project, bx is for you.

Quick Start

1. Create a config file

Create bx.toml (or bonnie.toml) in your project root:

version = "0.3.2"

[scripts]
build = "cargo build"
test = "cargo test"
dev = "cargo run -- %%"
greet = "echo 'Hello, %name!'"

2. Run your scripts

bx build              # Runs: cargo build
bx test               # Runs: cargo test
bx dev --release      # Runs: cargo run -- --release
bx greet Perseus      # Runs: echo 'Hello, Perseus!'

Installation

From Cargo (Recommended)

cargo install bx-cli

From Releases

Download pre-built binaries from the releases page for:

• Linux (amd64)
• macOS (amd64, arm64)
• Windows (amd64)
• musl (Alpine Linux)

After downloading:

chmod +x bx
sudo mv bx /usr/local/bin/

In Docker

RUN curl -L https://github.com/codemonument/bx/releases/download/v0.4.0/bx-linux-amd64 \
    -o /usr/local/bin/bx && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/bx

For Alpine Linux, use bx-musl-amd64 instead.

Configuration

bx looks for configuration files in this order:

1. BX_CONF environment variable
2. bx.toml in current directory
3. BONNIE_CONF environment variable
4. bonnie.toml in current directory

Syntax Guide

Basic Commands

version = "0.3.2"

[scripts]
build = "cargo build"
test = "cargo test"
clean = "cargo clean"

Arguments

Use %% to pass all remaining arguments, or %name for named arguments:

[scripts]
# Pass all arguments
run = "cargo run -- %%"

# Named argument (required)
greet = "echo 'Hello, %name!'"

# Named argument with default
greet.cmd = "echo 'Hello, %name!'"
greet.args = ["name=World"]

bx run --release       # cargo run -- --release
bx greet Alice         # echo 'Hello, Alice!'
bx greet               # echo 'Hello, World!'  (uses default)

Environment Variables

Interpolate environment variables with %varname:

[scripts]
deploy = "rsync -avz ./dist/ %USER@%HOST:/var/www/"

[scripts.deploy.env]
HOST = "example.com"

You can also load from .env files:

[env]
files = [".env", ".env.local"]

Multistage Commands

Run multiple commands in sequence:

[scripts]
ci = [
    "cargo fmt -- --check",
    "cargo clippy",
    "cargo test"
]

Subcommands

Nest commands for better organization:

[scripts.db]
db.subcommands.migrate = "diesel migration run"
db.subcommands.reset = "diesel database reset"
db.subcommands.seed = "cargo run --bin seed"

bx db migrate
bx db reset
bx db seed

OS-Specific Commands

Run different commands on different operating systems:

[scripts.open]
cmd.generic = "xdg-open %%"
cmd.targets.windows = "start %%"
cmd.targets.macos = "open %%"

Custom Shells

Override the default shell for specific commands:

[scripts]
# Use PowerShell on Windows
build.cmd = "Write-Host 'Building...'; cargo build"
build.shell = ["powershell", "-Command", "{}"]

# Use Node.js
calc.cmd = "console.log(2 + 2)"
calc.shell = ["node", "-e", "{}"]

Changing the Default Shell

Set default shells globally or per-OS:

# Global default
default_shell = ["bash", "-c", "{}"]

# Per-OS defaults
[default_shell.targets]
windows = ["powershell", "-Command", "{}"]
macos = ["zsh", "-c", "{}"]
linux = ["bash", "-c", "{}"]

Advanced Features

Bones (Ordered Subcommands)

Bones is a mini-language for defining subcommands that execute based on exit codes:

[scripts]
test.cmd.generic = """
start {
    unit => cargo test --lib {
        pass => integration => cargo test --test '*'
    }
}
"""

This runs unit tests first, and only runs integration tests if unit tests pass.

See the Bonnie documentation on Bones for full syntax.

Caching

For large config files, enable caching for faster startup:

bx -c    # Cache the current config
bx build # Subsequent runs use the cache

The cache is stored at .bx.cache.json (or .bonnie.cache.json).

Templates

Initialize new projects from templates:

bx -t    # Initialize from default template

Templates are stored in ~/.bx/template.toml (or ~/.bonnie/template.toml).

Debug Mode

See exactly what commands bx will execute:

bx -d build    # Shows the command without running it

How is this different from...

Bash Aliases?

Bash aliases can't be customized per-folder. If you want to interpolate arguments or environment variables, you need scripts. bx solves this with simple, intuitive syntax that just works, and it's cross-platform.

Make?

GNU Make was designed to recompile files when dependencies change. Its syntax is clunky for simple command aliasing. bx uses TOML, which is human-readable and only requires configuration for features you actually use.

package.json scripts?

npm scripts don't support comments, have poor environment variable handling, and require Node.js. bx is a single binary with no runtime dependencies.

Migrating from Bonnie

bx is a drop-in replacement for Bonnie:

1. Install bx: cargo install bx-cli
2. Your existing bonnie.toml files work as-is
3. Optionally rename to bx.toml
4. Replace bonnie with bx in your commands

License

MIT - See LICENSE

Credits

Based on Bonnie by arctic_hen7.