Hen

Hen is a work-in-progress CLI for managing multiple local development projects from one terminal workflow.

Projects are treated as “eggs”: small registered units with their own dev command, build command, deploy command, environment, ports, and lifecycle.

Why it exists

Local development gets messy fast.

A few projects become a pile of folders, half-remembered commands, reused ports, old .env files, zombie dev servers, and deployment scripts scattered across READMEs.

Hen is my attempt to make that feel boring again.

What it does

Hen gives each project a small config file and a shared command surface:

hen init
hen dev
hen build
hen deploy
hen destroy
hen status
hen list
hen ports
hen env
hen clear
hen docs

The goal is not to replace Docker, Turborepo, SST, or package managers.

The goal is simpler: one tiny local registry for projects I actually touch.

Design direction

Hen should feel like a tool that lives in the terminal, not a SaaS product trapped inside a terminal.

Fast commands. Clear status. Minimal config. Good defaults. Weird enough to remember.

Current status

The CLI is still WIP. The basic command shape exists, and the next step is making the registry, environment resolution, and port mapping solid enough for daily use.