Plain English explanations for compiler errors and CLI failures.
Stop staring at cryptic error messages. Just type why.
why reads the last error from your terminal and explains it in plain English, what went wrong, why it happened, and how to fix it. No more context-switching to Google or Stack Overflow.
cargo install --git https://github.com/alexdev-tb/whyRun why after a failed command to get an explanation of the error:
whyLook up a specific error code directly:
why ErrorCodeBrowse all supported error codes:
why --listSet up the shell hook for automatic error capture:
why --setupThe shell hook captures the output of failed commands automatically so why can read them. Run why --setup for automatic setup, or add the hook manually:
Add to your ~/.bashrc:
eval "$(why --hook bash)"Add to your ~/.zshrc:
eval "$(why --hook zsh)"Then restart your shell or run source ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc).
Contributions are encouraged! Adding a new error explanation is as simple as copying a YAML template and writing a few sentences of plain English.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide.